Search for A Broken Heart
by SilverYaoiHellion
Summary: [SoraRiku, WakkaRiku] On the evening before the storm, Sora makes his decision on who he loves but soon regrets his decision. Now he must fight to win back the heart he had broken not only from the darkness, but from an unexpected rival. [Deep Jungle]
1. Wrong Choice and A Broken Heart

This is a Kingdom Hearts story. Warnings are AU, Spoilers, Yaoi, OOC (possibly major for some characters), possible Threesome, Abuse and Rape, more warnings may come.

Summary: On the evening before the storm begins, Sora makes his decision on who he loves; but he soon finds he regrets his decision. Now, he must fight to win back the heart he had broken; not only from the darkness, but from an unexpected rival… (It's not Riku this time, at least not yet…)

Pairings: Eventual Sora/Riku, Guess Who/Riku, some Sora/Kairi, more pairings will come.

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**Prologue**

Sitting on the tree looking out over the sunset, Sora almost didn't hear the footsteps coming from behind him. From the sound of how heavily they were falling on the sand, Sora figured it would either be Riku or Wakka. The sound of the footsteps stopped right behind him, Sora arched his back around and was a head of flaming red hair in a blue headband.

"Hey Wakka…" Sora said.

With a hand on the trunk of the tree, pushing down with a grunt; Wakka got himself on the tree and stood on it beside Sora.

"Hey baby cousin…" Wakka said.

Sora huffed.

"I'm not a baby!" Sora said. "How could you say that anyway? You're only five months older than me!"

Wakka laughed and plopped his body down next to Sora.

"I know you're not a baby!" Wakka said. "You're a man, since your father had passed on. And you're going to have to choose a partner soon also!"

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked innocently; there was a blush on his cheeks.

"I know you're not stupid…" Wakka said. "Much…"

Sora elbowed his cousin in his stomach.

"Alright, alright!" Wakka laughed rubbing his stomach. "You're not stupid, but are you wise?"

Sora looked at Wakka, knowing what was going to come up.

"You know and I know that both Kairi and Riku like- no, love you." Wakka said. "You always said that you wanted to be just like your father; well, there is a chance right there between those two."

"I don't know, I love them both!" Sora said. "I can't even bear the thought of hurting either one of them."

"Well, I know you don't and can't handle both." Wakka said as he jumped off the tree. "Look, I'm not going to push you along to one; that's your job to do alone. Don't bother listening to Selphie because she's just going to confuse you more; plus she doesn't know how you really feel because she's never experience anything of the sort yet. No one can ever blame you for falling for both of them; they both are beautiful people with wonderful hearts; but you have to choose who the right one for you is."

Sora looked at Wakka.

"Who knows, if Kairi's the one you choose; then I can have Riku for myself!" Wakka said.

Sora glared at Wakka and tried to whack him upside the head with his wooden sword. Wakka ducked and ran off laughing.

Sora sighed looked out over the ocean again. Again, someone was coming up to him, but he didn't hear any footsteps; it was until a hand at the small of his back startled him and he fell off of the tree onto the sand below. A familiar laughter came to his ears.

"Get up you lazy bum!" The voice laughed.

Sora sat up and brushed the sand from his chin, then stood up and faced Kairi. Kairi looked up at him with a bright smile on her face.

"Why weren't you guys at the raft?" Kairi asked.

"Riku went off to get some more rope for it." Sora said. "I've been waiting for him for nearly half an hour at least."

Kairi nodded in understanding and jumped up onto the tree trunk, patting the spot beside her for Sora. Sora jumped up onto the tree and plopped himself down beside Kairi; together, the pair looked out to the ocean.

Sora was startled again when he felt a small hand suddenly grasp his, looking down to his side, he saw Kairi's hand grasping his. Slowly, Sora lifted his gaze to Kairi's face and he saw her looking at him with a loving look in her eyes.

"Sora…" Kairi said. "Let's leave together."

"Huh?" Sora asked in surprise.

"Let's leave right now, just the two of us!" Kairi said. "I love you and I want to be with you."

Sora couldn't believe what he was hearing; okay, he sort of did, but it was still shocking.

"We can't Kairi." Sora said.

He saw the look on Kairi's face falter.

"Don't get me wrong Kairi, I love you too!" Sora said.

Kairi gave a beaming smile and grabbed Sora's arm in hope.

"But we can't leave Riku behind." Sora said.

"Why?" Kairi asked.

"This was all his idea." Sora said. "This is his search to find out just where in the world he had come from."

Everything was Riku's idea. The raft and the journey which he hoped was to somewhere. Riku had arrived on the islands on the night of the legendary star shower as a small fragile boy ten years before; in a strange silver gown, and with a black bandana and a beautiful un-lockable locket around his neck. Sora had found him dazed and confused and took him over to his parents who had taken him into their care for a temporary while before Riku was placed into island foster care. At that time, Sora was five, Riku was estimated to be about five years old, but no one was sure; Riku had a major case of amnesia, all he could remember was his own name.

Sora and Riku have been best friends since that night, Sora knew he was falling for Riku and even dreamed of marrying him; then Kairi came. She herself was an orphan as well, but unlike Riku, was fortunate to be adopted; Kairi called her mother "Grandma" on account of the woman was already elderly when she had gotten Kairi. Soon, Sora was confused of his emotions between the two; he spoke to his mother often who always told him that it would always end up being his choice of who he chose.

As years went by, Sora knew that his friends loved him too; but he was too scared to do anything about it. Kairi and Riku were shy, even though they wouldn't admit it; and so was he himself. They were young and he didn't know how to do anything in a relationship yet; but his mother said follow his heart and everything would be fine.

But now as he sat down on the tree with Kairi, he thought that he had finally made his decision on who he really wanted to be with. Kairi was staring at something just behind him, Sora knew what it was; but he wasn't ready to take it that far yet.

"It's not time for that yet Kairi." Sora said.

"But I want to so bad." Kairi said as she eyed the fruits behind Sora.

The Paopu fruits; everyone on the island dreamed of finding the one they would share that legendary fruit with. It was said that once the fruit was eaten with someone else, their destinies were intertwined forever. It was rare that they were ever eaten; sometimes by couples on their anniversaries, sometimes on a couple's wedding day. It was good that the fruits were eaten so rarely, because there was only one known Paopu tree on all the islands and it took about four years for the tree to blossom to make more fruits.

"Not now Kairi, it's too soon." Sora said as he gave Kairi's hand a gentle squeeze.

Kairi smiled up at him softly and moved over closer to him. Sora leaned in slightly; then before the pair knew it, their lips were upon each other. It was a simple kiss, both of their first. Sora thought it felt nice, but felt like something was missing, he didn't know what. As they kissed, the sound of soft falling footfalls caught their attention; breaking the kiss, they looked back behind them at the bridge; right at a wide eyed Riku.

Sora felt his heart ache for Riku, especially when he looked into those aquamarine eyes. Riku hadn't cried since he was ten, when the foster parent he had cared for the most passed away; even though at the funeral he had tears in his eyes, he never let them fall. But now, tears were flowing freely down Riku's cheeks and dripping from his chin, onto his locket. Sora could've sworn he saw the blue heart shaped locket glow, but Riku turned away and ran off too quickly for Sora to confirm what he had seen. Sora didn't know if he should still be happy because he had Kairi; or ashamed of himself because he had just broken Riku's heart.

"Riku, wait!" Sora yelled as he tried to jump off the tree. He was shocked when he felt a pair of hands grab his arm and pull at him to continue to sit.

"He has to deal with it himself Sora." Kairi said.

"But-" Sora was cut off.

"You love me, don't you?" Kairi asked.

"Of course I do." Sora said. "But I need to get to Riku-"

Kairi jumped and kissed Sora again, quieting him; then she pressed her forehead to Sora's forehead and looked into his eyes.

"Riku's a big boy; he can deal with it himself." Kairi said. "He's hurt, but he'll heal."

Sora looked into Kairi's eyes and stayed seated on the tree, his mind still reeling on Riku. The new couple spent about another half an hour on the tree before Kairi had to head home; with another kiss on Sora's lips, she was gone. Sora sat down for a few more moments before he got off of the tree and walked off; his first intention was to head home, but with the thoughts of Riku and the sight of a certain little vine covered cave entrance diverted his path.

Sora looked around to make sure no one was around or looking at him; then rushed towards the steps bounding up them; walking past the mini pond and waterfall, he walked over to the vines on the rock wall. Lifting the vines out of the way, he looked into the dark tunnel and quickly ducked in, letting the vines cover the entrance. With his hands lightly brushing the wall so he could feel his way through, Sora made his way through; after a moment of careful walking, he saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

Once out of the tunnel, Sora let out a soft sigh once he entered the actual cave. Looking up at the ceiling of the cave, he saw that light was provided by the golden light of the setting sun. Looking around, he saw walls covered with small doodles and scribbled writing. Walking over to one certain wall, Sora crouched down and took a good look at it. The drawing was actually three different drawings side by side by side; the first drawing ever to be drawn in the cave.

The last time Sora was in that cave, a.k.a. the Secret Place, he was probably seven or eight years old. It was a place for just him, Kairi, and Riku; a secret between all of them that they thought and still think no one knew about.

The first time it was discovered was only a week after Riku had arrived to the islands; he and Sora were playing hide and seek and Riku took refuge in the tunnel behind the vines for a hiding place. After Sora gave up, Riku showed him the tunnel and they headed in deeper, finding the cave. Shortly after a few moments of exploring around the cave, Riku found a door at the very back; he suddenly got scared and wanted to leave, but Sora wanted to stay and see if he could open the door. Despite his best attempts, the door didn't budge; and with Riku in tears, he had no choice but to leave.

The next time they returned was when Kairi had arrived to the islands. Riku seemed to forget about the door and led both Sora and Kairi into the cave. Only moments after she arrived in the cave, Kairi managed to find two stakes and started drawing on the wall; Sora picked up the other one and started drawing as well. After they were done, Riku was surprised, but happy to see that Sora had drawn him; Riku took the stake from Sora and did a drawing of Sora next to the drawing that Sora did. So the drawings on the wall went in the order of Kairi, Sora, and Riku.

Now, Sora at fourteen years old sat down in the cave and stared at the drawings that were made all those years ago. Sora sat down to make himself more comfortable; looking down he saw the very stakes that were used to draw the drawings on the wall and picked on up. The three drawings before him were missing something, something that he wanted to add at that moment. Carefully, Sora drew an arm for himself and had it held out to Kairi with a hand, in the hand was a star representing the Paopu fruit. Once he was done he put the stake down and really studied the drawings; a feeling was nagging him that he should erase the drawing and draw the arm going the other direction.

"Every heart, no matter light or dark is fragile as glass." A deep voice said from behind him.

With a jump, Sora whirled around and stood; surprised to see someone in a black long hooded cloak standing in the center of the cave.

"Such a young fool…" The possible man said.

"Who are you?!" Sora yelled; he felt silly hold his wooden sword out at the large cloaked figure, feeling like what the man had said just before was true.

Within a blink, the figure was suddenly gone. Sora looked around wildly, but didn't spot the figure anywhere; he vaguely started to wonder if his imagination was getting just a little too out of control; that caused him to think of the weird dreams he had been having lately.

With another look around the cave, Sora noticed that it was getting harder to see; sheathing his sword, he walked towards the tunnel and out of the cave.

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Wakka gently rubbed Riku's back as his friend continued to cry. He was in his room, sitting on his bed, holding his own long time crush in his arms.

Wakka was shocked about the whole situation of who Sora chose. Wakka personally was rooting for Sora to choose Riku, but didn't want to interfere in anyway of his cousin's choice; even though Wakka was still jealous of Sora. Sora had Riku's love; that was what he wanted for himself. He had been in love with Riku for probably longer than Sora had; he had loved him since the day he had met Riku, which was only three days after he was found.

Over the years, Wakka had fallen for Riku even more, so much so, it hurt. Wakka could only watch as Riku fawned over Sora and Sora remained confused of his emotions. But now, Sora had shattered Riku's heart; and Riku was having a breakdown, even though he knew it was selfish of him to think it, it was his chance to get Riku for himself.

"Hey Riku…" Wakka cooed, gently shaking Riku. "Come on, let's go for a walk."

Riku's crying ceased slightly and he looked up at Wakka from his chest. Wakka was sitting on his bed, his back supported by the wall, and Riku was draped over him crying into his chest.

Wakka's heart ached for Riku was he looked into his eyes. The aquamarine eyes were sort of darkened, as if a storm was raging within him; despite how strong he truly was, it seemed like he was the fragile little boy that Wakka had fallen for because of his bloodshot eyes.

"Let's go…" Wakka said as he shifted to stand. "A little fresh air should do you some good."

Riku said nothing as he got off of Wakka. Wakka put on his own shoes and looked back at Riku, noticing that Riku hadn't moved at all. With a smile, Wakka grabbed Riku's shoes and walked over to him; knowing that Riku wasn't going to move for anything yet, Wakka bent down before him and grabbed one of Riku's slim feet.

Even Riku's feet were beautiful, more so than most girls Wakka knew; they were perfectly manicured, trimmed toe nails and everything clean and white. He was surprised that for Riku's tall form that he had had small feet; he looked down at the shoes and out of curiosity; he stuck his hand in it. Like he thought he would, he felt something in it; getting his fingers at it, he tugged it out and was surprised to find a small rag. Putting his hand back into Riku's shoe and pulled out another; afterwards doing the same with Riku's other shoe. With a slight smile on his face, he looked up at Riku.

Riku looked down back at Wakka; he had a slight blush on his cheeks, not knowing what to say. Wakka chuckled at the look on Riku's face.

"Your secret's safe with me." Wakka said. "But, as far as I'm concerned, you shouldn't be hiding such a beautiful feature of your body; your feet actually complement you."

The blush at Riku's cheeks intensified.

Wakka stuffed the rags back into Riku's shoes and one by one placed Riku's shoes onto his feet. Each time he tickled the bottom of Riku's feet, causing him to giggle a little. Once the buckles were buckled, he stood and held out his hand to Riku. Riku looked at it for a moment before accepting it. Wakka didn't let go of Riku's hand as he lead him out of his bedroom and out of the house.

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When the pair walked outside, they were both surprised to see that it was already nightfall. The continued to walk regardless, planning to only get a little fresh air.

"Do you want to stay the night?" Wakka asked Riku.

It was known to most kids that Riku didn't get along with the foster parents that he was currently paired up with; he was often staying at other friends houses so he could stay away from his current shelter for as long as possible.

"Yes…" Riku said quietly. "Thank you…"

The pair continued to walk, hand in hand, for awhile more; eventually finding their way to the beach, almost without noticing. They walked along the shoreline together, just out of the water's reach as he surged in and out from and to the sea.

It was a nice night out; the moon was full and it was nice and cool. The beach was illuminated by the glow of the moon. As Riku walked with Wakka, he couldn't stop thinking of Sora, wishing that he was sharing the moment with him.

Wakka looked at Riku and knew exactly what he was thinking. Wakka could hate his cousin, but he loved him too much; he was so lucky to have Riku's love, but so foolish the throw it away. To comfort Riku, Wakka gently squeezed Riku's hand. Feeling the squeeze; Riku looked at Wakka.

The pair came to a stop and stared into each other's eyes…

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Sora lay down on his bed staring up at the ceiling, the day's events rushing through his mind. He finally had the girl of his dreams, but was she the one he really wanted?

Images of Riku's tear filled eyes filled his mind. He had tried to find Riku earlier, right after leaving the cave really, but couldn't find his friend anywhere and he was worried. He wished that he had gone after Riku when he first saw him instead of staying with Kairi; he had her and knew he wouldn't loose her because he went off to comfort his best friend, right?

Sora's gaze shifted from the roof to his trophy shelf; he had a collection of a few trophies, but it wasn't the trophies that were important to him; it was the teddy bear at the very top of the shelf.

It was a cute little bear with white silver shine fur and a pair of light blue button eyes; at its side, the name Riku was stitched into it in royal blue thread.

The bear was very near and dear to Sora, he kept that bear in better condition than most of his other belongings. He had received it from Riku as a birthday present when he was ten years old; Sora had made a bear for Riku as well and gave it to him on Christmas.

Sora's bear was a cute little chocolate brown bear with dark blue button eyes and his name stitched into the side with silver tread. Sora wondered how hard it was for Riku to make the bear that he had given him, or if he had even made it at all. It took Sora probably ten tries and a lot of alcohol and bandages to make the perfect bear for Riku; he would never forget the surprised look on Riku's face when he opened the present on Christmas morning. Sora wondered if Riku even still had the bear that he had made him.

Just a few moments before, he had just finished speaking to Kairi over the phone, arranging their first date. Sora said that he was tired and promised to speak about it soon, leaving Kairi to sulk.

As Sora lay in bed, he wondered what a relationship with Riku would be like. Soon, his thoughts were interrupted by an odd sense and a rumbling from outside. Sitting up, he looked outside; his eyes widened at the harsh winds whipping everything around.

"The raft!" Sora said as he jumped up on his bed.

Quickly crawling to his window, he got through it and onto the roof of the house. Rushing to the drain pipe, he sat down on the roof and slid down the pipe quickly. Once landing on the ground, he took off towards the beach; he knew that Riku would be there trying to save the raft.

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"Riku, we should really be getting home!" Wakka yelled over the wind as he followed Riku.

"Not until the raft is tied down!" Riku yelled as he opened the shack door.

"What raft?!" Wakka asked for the third time; he had no idea what was going on at all. One moment he's about to kiss Riku, then the next a huge storm suddenly comes over the island and Riku goes on and on about some raft. Even though Wakka worried, he followed Riku to the boat and helped him row to the other side of the beach.

Following Riku through the shack, he saw Riku open the door and dash out; he followed behind quickly. Over the bridge, a little over the Cove and down another set of steps they ran. A little ways off, past the coconut trees, Wakka was surprised to see Riku lead him straight to a raft.

"You can go home if you like!" Riku yelled as he grabbed a rope. "But if you're going to stay, help me!" He held out another rope to Wakka.

Wakka took the rope and tied one end to the raft, like Riku was doing with his own rope, then tied the other end to a tree. As Wakka tied his end to the tree, he turned to Riku; he did a double-take at Riku when he looked at him, Riku looked odd. His eyes were suddenly void of any emotion or almost any life. Wakka quickly dropped his rope and rushed to Riku, grabbing his shoulders, shaking him.

"Riku, Riku!!!" Wakka said as he shook him. "Hey, what's the matter with you?!"

Shaking himself away from Wakka, Riku suddenly started rushing away from the raft and trees; Wakka was hot on his heels. Noticing where Riku was headed, Wakka looked towards the Cove; but came to a dead stop.

"What the-?!" He yelled.

Looking up at the sky above the Cove, Wakka saw a strange gargantuan dark hole in the sky. It seemed to be sparking with what looked like red lightening. He had a bad feeling that something was going to happen; shifting his sights back on Riku, he saw that Riku was still running towards the Cove; in an attempt to stop him, Wakka started to chase him.

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When Sora got to the beach, he was surprised to find Kairi getting into her boat.

"Kairi, what are you doing here?!" Sora yelled as he rushed towards her.

"I'm going to the other side of the beach, want to come?" Kairi asked.

"You should be home!" Sora said. "It's too dangerous out here for you!" As Sora said that, he looked over all the boats; like he thought, Riku's was gone.

"And it's not for you?!" Kairi asked.

There was a huge boom of thunder and Sora knew that wasn't time to argue.

"Move!" Sora said as he jumped into Kairi's boat; he quickly sat down and grabbed the oars from her, quickly rowing to the other side of the beach.

Once he docked next to the docking bridge, he jumped out; just as he was about to help Kairi out of the boat, something over the Cove caught his eye. His hand held Kairi's hand, but he didn't do anything; he was looking up in shock at the huge thing hanging over the Cove. Something in Sora's heart told him that Riku was there.

"What's that?!" Kairi yelled as she looked at the gaping hole over the Cove as well. She let go of Sora's hand and helped herself onto the dock.

"I don't know." Sora said; he was about to rush over to the Cove, but Kairi's scream caught her attention. He looked to her and saw that she was frantically pointing at something; turning around, Sora was shocked to see what he saw.

The strange bug creatures from his dream, he knew that they were bad news and they were headed towards him and Kairi.

Holding Kairi behind him, Sora quickly took out his wooden sword and started slashing at the strange bugs; nothing happened, but Sora didn't quit just yet. Kairi let out a cry of pain when one of them stabbed her with its claws. Sora swung at it, but still his sword did nothing; he was surprised to see that some of the had sunk into the ground and slithered away, moving much like a shadow would; some of them jumped back up from the ground and slashed back at him.

Seeing he had no other choice, he grabbed Kairi's hand and he quickly made a run for it. Running towards the shack, he opened the door and shoved Kairi inside before he went inside himself. It was pitch black dark inside, but he knew the shack by heart. Once he felt Kairi's hand in his, he led Kairi carefully but quickly towards the stairs. As they rushed up the stairs, Kairi almost tripped; but Sora yanked her up and continued up the stairs.

Once they got to the door, Sora shoved it open and rushed outside. Only seconds afterwards, more strange creatures surrounded him and Kairi. Knowing that his sword wasn't going to be able to do anything, he rushed himself and Kairi across the bridge before those weird creatures could do anything to him or her; but more surrounded their way, but they managed to keep clear of them.

When Sora got to the dock, the sight of Riku shocked him more than anything did in his life at that moment.

Riku stood at the center of the Cove just in front of the Paopu tree; the moon and star light from the sky casting him in an eerie glow. Even though Riku didn't seem to notice Sora, Sora could see Riku's eyes; void of any emotion, almost empty of life. Riku just stared up at the weird hole in the sky. Wakka held him in his arms from behind, saying something to him, but Sora didn't know what. Watching his cousin with his arms around Riku angered Sora; Sora knew why, but was afraid to admit it to himself with Kairi so near.

Riku slowly turned his empty gaze to Sora.

"Sora…" Riku said. "This is our chance."

Sora didn't know what Riku was talking about.

"Our chance?" Sora asked. "For what?"

"To get out of here." Riku said. "To see what's past this world." Riku held his hand out to Sora.

Sora looked at Riku's hand and an instant quick flashback to his dream flashed though his mind. He felt Kairi grasp onto his arm, over his shoulder he could actually feel the glare that Kairi was giving Riku over his shoulder.

"Let's go Sora." Riku said. "The two of us."

Sora looked into Riku's eyes and knew that he had to help Riku. He looked at his cousin and saw a look of odd defeat on his face, but ignored it as he looked back at Riku.

"Sora, it's a trap." Kairi said. "There's something wrong."

Sora ignored what Kairi said and started to walk towards Riku; he felt relieved when he felt Kairi let go of his arm. He was so focused on Riku, that he didn't notice the glare that Wakka was fixing on him. As he drew closer, he held out his hand; as he drew closer, he didn't notice a strange dark wispy power start surrounding everything, or that he and everyone else was starting to sink into a strange dark puddle that had suddenly formed in the ground. Kairi yelled out to him, but he didn't hear her; all he wanted was to hold Riku's hand.

The moment his hand grasped onto Riku; everything turned black and quiet. It felt like an eternity to Sora before everything came back to him. He looked around wildly, seeing that both Riku and Wakka were nowhere in sight.

"Sora!!!" Kairi screamed.

Whirling around, he saw that there were even stranger bug creatures surrounding them; looking down at his hand, he saw something odd.

'What is this?!' Sora thought to himself as he raised it to take a better look at it.

Where his sword used to be, he was holding a huge over grown key.

"Sora!!!" Kairi screamed again.

Not knowing what else to do, Sora jumped into action. He used the key and brought it down onto the strange creatures like he would with his sword; he was shocked when he saw some of the creatures suddenly died off, quickly vanquishing into black smoke. Slashing away through even more of the weird creatures, he made his way to Kairi and grabbed her hand and quickly rushing back towards the shack.

Opening the door, he let Kairi in first before letting himself in. The moment the door close; he heard an awful exploding sound and felt his body suddenly fly into the air. He grabbed Kairi's hand and held on tightly, she did the same. Everything was flying by in a flurry; Sora didn't know what was going on as everything suddenly when black with a huge white flash.

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Sora was awoken by loud screaming when he came to again. Slowly, as not to agitate his aching body too much, he sat up; what he saw made his heart jump.

Everything, his home, was in ruins. He looked around at the odd weird world that used to be his home. His attention was drawn by he screaming and he looked around, he soon noticed it was more than one scream.

First, he spotted Kairi; then next to her, he spotted Selphie. Not too far off from them, the only one not screaming, was a confused and scared Tidus.

"Sora!!!" Tidus yelled as he rushed over to him.

Once he got there, he helped Sora to his feet best he could. Kairi and Selphie rushed over to help. Selphie was crying, as was Kairi.

"What in the world is going on?" Tidus asked for not only himself, but for the girls.

"I have no idea." Sora said; he looked down at his hand and saw that he was still holding the key; he would've concentrated on it more if it weren't for the loud rumbling that filled the air.

"What's going on now?" Selphie asked as she looked around.

"I don't know…" Sora said as he readied himself.

Up above, the hole in the sky was still there; Selphie looked up and let out another scream, pointing up at the hole.

Following her finger, everyone else looked up at the hole horrified. From the hole, a long black arm came through and placed the hand onto the crater of land that the group was standing on. In less than a minute, the rest of the body followed.

"It's another creature from my dream…" Sora whispered to himself.

The creature spotted Sora and the others, suddenly reared its ugly head back and let out an earth shattering roar.

The remaining land beneath the group sudden disintegrated away and they fell, all of them screaming; then suddenly, the wind from everywhere started to swirl and the group started to spin in the air.

"Sora!!!" Kairi screamed.

"Kairi!" Sora yelled. "Tidus! Selphie!"

Everyone swirled in the air, and one by one, their worlds went black.

To be continued…

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Will Sora be able to find everyone?

What happened to Riku?

Will Wakka be the one to win his heart?

Please send reviews!!!


	2. Arrival to Traverse Town

Hey everyone, back for another update!!! Thank you to those who took the time to review and read; it is greatly appreciated.

A Special Thank You to those who reviewed: Smiley Smackdown and Cover Me With Starlight.

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**Chapter 1**

When Sora came to, he didn't know where he was. His whole body was in pain and he was sitting up against a wall in an alleyway. His memory was scattered, at first he couldn't piece together what had happened to him to end up where he was; then suddenly in a harsh flash, everything that had happened came back to him. His eyes widened and he sat up quickly.

"Riku!!!" He yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls of the alley.

His voice had drawn something unexpected, a dog, a Dalmatian to be exact. A full grown Dalmatian dog with a blue collar trotted up to him and started to sniff him, after a few seconds started licking him.

Laughing, Sora tried to shove the dog away, but it was reluctant to stop. Sora managed to get a hold of one of the tags on the dog's collar and head off the name.

"Pongo…" Sora read; then he held the dog's head in his hands. "Have you seen anyone like me around here?"

Pongo wriggled out of Sora's hold and trotted away.

Sora sighed and attempted to stand up, but noticed that he was still holding onto the large key that had come to him back at the islands. Looking at it, he saw that it had an overgrown keychain as well, in the shape of a mouse head. As he looked at the key, a bark caught his attention.

Looking and to the side, he saw Pongo staring at him. Pongo barked again and started to walk away, but came back, as if beckoning Sora to follow him. Sora pushed himself up, and despite the pain in his body, followed the dog.

------------------

Kairi walked around the town dazed and confused. She had no idea where she was and she was scared. She was in a strange place, not knowing anything, and was out in what seemed to be the middle of the night. As she looked around, she saw people, but she didn't know if she could trust them to help her.

"Excuse me, little lady?" A voice behind Kairi asked.

Whirling around, Kairi saw an elderly, yet almost young looking woman; she was dressed in a blue gown and pointed hot, in her hand was a wand with a sparkling tip.

"I couldn't help but notice, are you lost?" The old woman asked.

Kairi felt she could trust the old lady, so she nodded.

"Oh dear…" The old lady said. "Do you have any place to go?"

Again, Kairi shook her head.

The old woman gave a knowing nod; she stepped forward and took Kairi's hand into a gentle hold.

"Come with me young one." The old lady said. "You can stay with me until everything's straightened out."

Kairi didn't attempt to hold onto the lady's hand, a worried look coming to her eyes. The old lady offered Kairi a warm caring smile.

"Oh, don't worry…" The old lady said as she patted Kairi's hand with her other hand. "Everything will be fine."

Kairi felt she could really trust the lady, so she gave her a soft timid smile.

Together, the two headed off.

"Now, tell me everything that has happened…" The old lady said.

------------------

As Sora followed Pongo, he kept looking over his shoulder; as Sora followed Pongo, he couldn't help but feel like he himself was being followed as well.

Pongo came to a stop in front of a huge door, he turned to Sora.

"Do you want me to open it?" Sora asked.

Pongo nodded.

Sora walked up to the door and with one hand, pushed on of the doors open; he let Pongo go through first, then looked behind him. Seeing nothing, Sora shrugged off the odd feeling and went through himself.

Once the door closed behind him, Sora saw that he and Pongo had entered a part of the town that seemed to be the town square. There was a little waterway and at the center a sort of fountain. Sora walked over to the fountain and despite all of its other beauty, was drawn to one single feature of fountain; the keyhole shaped design at the center behind a thin curtain of water. He looked down at his key and up at the keyhole again.

Pongo let out another bark and trotted away, Sora chased after the dog so he wouldn't loose him.

"Hold it kid!" A loud voice yelled.

Whirling around, Sora saw a tall figure. It was of a young man with dark hair, Sora couldn't tell if it was dark brown or black because of the dimly lit scenery. The man was in a black leather jacket, a tight white t-shirt, and a pair of tight black leather jeans that had a couple of belts crisscrossing over his waist; on his hands the man had on a pair of gloves and around his arms were brown buckles. Around the man's neck was a large chain necklace, much like the one Sora wore, but it had a lion and cross shaped pendent on it. In the man's hand, Sora couldn't help but notice a large sword; he could've sworn he saw that it was half gun as well; it seemed to have a charm on the large blade as well, in the shape of a lion head. Sora could see that on the man's jacket, he had a red symbol on the arm, a lion head with a cross at the bottom; that symbol seemed to be the man's theme.

Sora eyed the man up and down; not knowing what he wanted with him.

"What are you doing with the Keyblade?" The man asked.

Sora could only guess that the man before him was speaking of the large unknown key in his hand; at least it was unknown to him, the man seemed to know what it was.

"You know what this thing is?" Sora asked as he raised it. "I don't know why I have it; it just came to me when I tried to help a friend." As Sora said that, a flash of Riku's odd near lifeless eyes flashed in his mind.

"Give it here." The man said as he held out his hand. "That is too much power for a boy like you."

Sora looked at the man's outstretched hand and stepped back. Sora knew that he had had the key for a reason; he wasn't about to hand it over to a complete stranger.

"No." Sora said.

"Fine kid…" The man said as he readied his large blade. "Then we'll do this the hard way." He charged at Sora.

Sora was surprised, but managed to block the man's first move. The man drew back his blade and tried to swing it at Sora's legs, but Sora jumped and swung the Keyblade at the man's head actually hitting him. The man stumbled a little from shock, but managed to slash at Sora, slashing his arm a little and leaving a gaping cut. Sora jumped back, landing yards away from the man, still in battle ready stance.

Just as they were about to move to attack again, the sound of rushing wind caught their attention, and both jumped back in surprise when a pinwheel suddenly embedded itself into the cement ground between them with a crunching thud.

"Stop it Squall!!!" A loud voice yelled.

The man whirled around and Sora looked ahead of him, seeing a young lady with short black hair walking up to them. She was dressed quite scantily; she wore a green bra shirt anchored to her by blue buckles, a yellow scarf wrapped around her neck, a pair of short-short yellow pants buckled in a large blue belt, a pair of off-white knee stockings and a pair of light brown boots. She wore fishnet gloves that stopped above her elbow halfway up to her underarms, at her hands were a pair of fingerless orange gloves that went up to her elbows; in her hand she held a gleaming death silver star.

"Yuffie, what are you doing here?" The man, apparently named Squall, asked the young woman apparently named Yuffie.

"I came looking for you to tell you that it seems the Heartless had attacked another world." Yuffie said. "Fairy Godmother has found a young redhead girl-"

The very mentioning of a redheaded girl caught Sora's attention.

"Kairi!!!" Sora yelled.

"That's her name." Yuffie said. "You wouldn't happen to be Sora, would you?"

Sora nodded.

"Well, come with us." Yuffie said as she walked over to Squall. "At the home we seem to have three of your friends, Kairi, Selphie, and Tidus."

"Do you have my cousin Wakka and my best friend Riku…?" A ping of guilt stung Sora's heart when he used the title "best friend" for Riku.

"No…" Yuffie said. "Kairi explained to us what had happened to them and I don't think that their anywhere near."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

Yuffie stepped up to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"We'll explain to you later, but let's just get to your friends, shall we?" Yuffie said.

Pongo let out a bark and started to trot off.

"Pongo will lead you there, just follow him; but don't go so far that me and Squall-" Yuffie said, but was interrupted by Squall.

"Leon!" Squall said.

"Whatever…" Yuffie said; then continued with what she was saying before. "…can't see you. I need to speak to Leon."

Sora nodded and walked with Pongo, a little ways away from the other two.

The two watched as Sora walked along side Pongo; then Leon spoke.

"What's going on?" Leon asked.

"It's his friends, Selphie and Tidus." Yuffie said. "They've been found without their hearts."

"How are you going to explain it to the kid?" Leon asked.

"He's going to have to understand it." Yuffie said as she eyed the Keyblade Sora was holding. "He is the Keyblade Bearer, isn't he?"

"What about the girl, Kairi?" Leon asked.

Yuffie nodded.

"Yeah, that's her name." Yuffie said. "She seems to be fine, just a little spooked; she took it hard when we explained to her that her friends no longer have their hearts. Godmother says she senses a powerful power from Kairi."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Leon asked.

Yuffie shrugged.

------------------

When Sora arrived to the so called home, he found that it was a small hotel. Sitting on the porch was a middle-aged blond man smoking a cigar and Fairy Godmother; upon hearing Pongo's barking, they looked in Sora's direction as he walked up.

"Oh, you must be Sora!" The old lady said as she stood up.

The door suddenly opened and at the door was Kairi.

"Sora!" She yelled out happily as she bounded down the steps and rushed over to Sora.

"Kairi!" Sora said as he opened his arms.

Kairi dove into Sora's arms and hugged him tightly; they held onto each other for a moment before Kairi moved her head and placed a kiss at Sora's lips. Again, Sora didn't feel that the kiss was right; he felt like something was missing, but nonetheless, he kissed back anyway; a strange hurtful feeling pinging in his heart.

What broke the pair from the kiss was a pair of "Awww..." coming from two places.

Looking behind Sora, Kairi saw that it was Yuffie; and looking towards the door, she saw that Aerith was smiling looking at them. Sora blushed furiously and unlatched his arms from around Kairi; but Kairi held onto his hand.

"Well, come in before all of you freeze to death." Aerith said.

"Cid, can you make sure the heater is full?" Fairy Godmother said to the blond man.

Cid nodded and ground his cigar into the ashtray on a little table before standing and walking into the house.

"Plus, we have to check out Sora's wound." Yuffie said as she pointed to Sora's arm.

Kairi followed Yuffie's finger and let out a gasp at Sora's cut.

"Sora, what happened?!" Kairi asked panicked.

"Don't worry about it; it's not a big deal." Sora said.

Kairi tugged at Sora and almost dragged him into the house, following Aerith and Godmother as they went in themselves; Leon and Yuffie lagging behind.

"He may be young, but maybe he is truly the destined Keyblade Bearer." Yuffie said.

Leon shrugged.

Together, the pair went up the steps and into the hotel.

------------------

"How can their hearts be missing?" Sora asked as he looked at the seemingly slumbering forms of Tidus and Selphie. "They're still breathing?"

"It's not like that Sora…" Aerith said. "In the case of when a Heartless takes your heart, it's like they take your soul; not exactly all of your life. But if we don't get your friends hearts back to them in time, they will die; their bodies can only hold on so long without their hearts."

"But where are their hearts?" Kairi asked.

"Have any of you ever heard of a man by the name of Ansem?" Aerith asked.

Automatically, both Sora and Kairi shook their head, knowing that they had never heard such a name.

"Well, that man has seemingly created the Heartless; though it's not known how…" Aerith said.

"Why would anyone create such awful creatures?" Kairi asked.

"We don't know why…" Leon said. "He seems to be looking for something; but no one knows what."

"Do you think he's stolen Riku's heart?" Sora asked.

Kairi looked at Sora; she was feeling jealous about the situation because Sora had only mentioned Riku, not Wakka as well; meaning that Sora still had feelings for Riku.

"We aren't sure." Yuffie said. "He and your cousin could've landed in a different world for all we know."

"So, the Heartless not only steal hearts; but they can leave worlds in absolute shambles." Kairi said.

"That's correct." Aerith said. "From what you explained what the Heartless looked like and did, I can easily tell you that you had an encounter with a swarm of Shadow Heartless. As for the huge giant you spoke about, I've never heard of anything like it."

"Shadows…" Sora said to himself as he remembered what all those weird buggy creatures did; they literally moved like shadows from what Sora remembered. "Are there more different Heartless?"

"Oh yes, many, many more!" Yuffie said. "Me, Leon, Aerith, and others have seen a lot of different Heartless; but we all know we haven't been close to seeing all of them, and we're very lucky!!!"

"Tell me about this Keyblade thing…" Sora said as he held his blade up. "What is it and why do I have it?"

"That weapon you hold now is the only weapon known to be able to destroy the Heartless." Leon said. "Other weapons can only delay the attack of a Heartless; but the Keyblade is known to actually destroy those things. As to why you have it, I have no idea; you're only a kid and you're wielding one of the most powerful weapons known to man."

Sora was about to tell Leon to stop calling him a kid when a loud whirring sound came from outside all of a sudden.

Rushing out of the room for a moment, Leon came back in a huge panicked rush.

"Soldiers!!!" He said as he picked up his Gunblade.

"Kairi, you stay here with Aerith!" Yuffie said as she jumped up. "Sora, you come with me and Leon; you get to see some different Heartless."

Sora didn't want to go, but knew he had no choice. Jumping up, he kissed Kairi's cheek and followed Leon and Yuffie out of the room and out of the hotel.

"Be careful!!!" Fairy Godmother yelled after them as she watched them leave.

------------------

Just when they got outside, Sora was surprised to see so many Heartless, but was even more surprised to see their form.

They stood up right like humans and from head to toe they were covered in armor; on their chests, Sora got the first look at the Heartless symbol; a blood red heart that oddly made Sora think of the blue heart on Riku's locket necklace.

The Soldiers swarmed around the trio. Yuffie used her death stars and threw them at the Soldiers, some were knocked off of their feet and some were able to shield themselves or bat them away with their own little swords. Leon fired his gun at them, blasting many away at once; but they'd quickly recover and come back to attack.

Sora was the only one doing any real damage. He batted away at the Heartless with his Keyblade; the Heartless were basically defenseless as they were defeated. Sora noticed that some of the Heartless were trying to take his blade away from them, because some of them would grab at his blade and tug at it, trying to rip it from Sora's grasp; but Sora managed to keep his blade and destroy more Heartless.

When it became too much, Leon said that they should run off to another part of town in defense; quickly, the trio made their way to the town square.

Once they got there, they closed the door and managed to catch their breath for a moment; but that was short lived. The ground started rumbling and the grounds started to suddenly rise into high walls, blocking any chance of escape; a dark portal formed in the sky and a huge set of armor fell from the sky, it seemed to be moving by itself when it landed. The appendages of the large armor moved on its own and hovered little ways form the body.

Leon and Yuffie readied themselves; Sora did the same thing following their readiness. Leon gave Sora some advice.

"Now that you're the bearer of the Keyblade…" Leon said. "Expect many, many different obstacles in your way."

With that, they all set into battle.

------------------

When the three arrived back to the hotel, they were just tired and wanted to go to bed as soon as possible.

Upon seeing Sora, Kairi was instantly at his side; Aerith rushed to Leon and Yuffie and fussed over them. They were offered food and cooling drinks; the only thing the trio took were the cooling drinks and headed right to bed.

Kairi wanted to sleep in the same bed with Sora, but Sora said he wasn't ready for that and apologized; Kairi said don't worry about it and slept in the next room over.

Even though he was the most tired he had ever been in his whole life; Sora couldn't sleep. The only thing he could think about was Riku, forget about everyone else. Where was Riku? Was he okay? Was Wakka with him? What had happened to him back at home? Those questions they swirled around Sora's mind; then drifted to the dreams that seemed to be a major warning to him before everything had happened.

**Dream**

Sora was drifting somewhere; somewhere that was cooling, relaxing, very familiar, yet he didn't know where he was. He suddenly felt his body floating upwards and everything up above got brighter; then he broke the surface. Gasping for air and suddenly waving his arms and legs, Sora found that he was in the ocean; gently he swam to keep himself afloat.

A familiar voice called out his name from behind and he swam turning around; looking at the shoreline, he saw Riku waving out to him. Sora felt his heart flutter at the sight of Riku and he began swimming towards the shore. When he got there, he stood up and started coughing out the water he had in his lungs; the sound of feet rushing over the sand caused him to look up. He saw Riku looking down at him worriedly, asking him if he was alright and what he was doing out there. Sora said that he was okay and started to chat with Riku; silently admiring Riku's beauty to himself.

As Sora spoke to Riku, he noticed that Wakka seemed to appear from nowhere. He was a little startled by the look on Wakka; Wakka was glaring at him and he didn't know why. Wakka stood a ways off, unnoticed by Riku, and he was glaring straight at him. Riku noticed Sora's gaze and turned around to see who he was looking at, then suddenly mentioned Kairi. When Sora looked again, there was Kairi standing right beside Wakka; she seemed to be glaring at Riku.

Riku suddenly took off running towards the ocean much to Sora's surprise; then he was horrified when he saw Riku running towards a rising tidal wave. Sora's muscles locked and he called out to Riku to come back. Riku continued till he was far off, he turned around looking to Sora smiling. Off in the distance to his side, he saw a flash of red; when he looked, he saw Wakka rushing towards Riku, calling out his name. Sora looked to Kairi who was smiling now, a weird gleam in her eyes. Sora, not knowing what else to do, took off towards Riku as well.

When he got close, he saw that Wakka had beaten him to Riku and was holding him around his waist. Riku stood there, not doing anything but holding his hand out towards Sora. Sora rushed up towards Riku and managed to grab his hand, just as the tidal wave crashed down upon him. Despite his best efforts, Sora lost grasp of Riku's hand and drifted away from him; his world before him turning black.

**End Dream**

What else Sora remembered from his dreams was everything getting weirder from there; he found himself standing on different stain glass platforms of different slumbering women, he still didn't know who they were and know he didn't see them before that dream.

Sora noticed that that dream that he had had continuously for months was a sort of warning; but everything was just so weird and farfetched, he thought that he was just going through a faze.

With those thoughts, Sora fell into an uneasy sleep.

------------------

"And you will travel with Leon and Yuffie." Aerith finished explaining.

Kairi clung to Sora almost in tears, Sora hugged her with a determined look in his eyes; he was going to look for Riku and no one was going to stop him, not even Kairi. He'd be happy if he happened to find Wakka, but everything was really for Riku.

When Sora told that to Aerith, she told him that he would be going with Leon and Yuffie who were also looking for someone as well. They would help Sora as he traveled, because Sora explained to them earlier that last night it seemed that some of the Heartless were trying to steal away his blade. Leon said that he would look into and get back to him.

At that moment, Cid was working in the garage on a ship that would help Sora and the others travel; Kairi said that she wanted to come, but Godmother said no, that it was too risky to take someone who didn't have a weapon. Cid said that he would have the ship finished by late afternoon, meaning that Sora, Leon, and Yuffie would be leaving that night.

As Sora hugged Kairi, he thought of what it would feel like to hug Riku. Sora felt guilty that he was leading Kairi on in the relationship, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings like he had done Riku's; he thought he had made the right choice. Sora wondered how in the world he could've figured out such a thing so fast and at such a young age; he wondered what his father would think if he were alive.

Off in the distance Aerith watched the couple. She looked more at Sora and knew that Sora was regretting being in the relationship; she could tell that Sora was and would always think of someone else. She hoped that everything in the long run would be okay; everyone was so young, but they were dealing with such heartache and in order to survive the war, everyone would need a strong heart.

------------------

"Here Sora, I want you to hold this…" Kairi said as she handed Sora something.

Sora took it into his hand and saw that it was a pink star trinket.

"It's my good luck charm." Kairi said as she hugged Sora. "Take care of it, I want you to come back in one piece and give it back to me."

Sora hugged Kairi close and kissed the top of her head.

"I will…" Sora said.

"Sora, it's time to go." Yuffie said.

"Alright…" Sora said; he gave Kairi a peck on her lips and followed Leon and Yuffie onto the ship.

To be continued…

------------------

Where's Riku?

Will Sora ever have the courage to tell Kairi the truth?

Well, please send me reviews and maybe you'll find out!!!


	3. Arrival to Wonderland

Hello everyone, back for another update! Thank you to those who took the time to read, it's much appreciated; I just hope that more readers come soon.

Thank you to those who reviewed: Smiley Smackdown and Cover Me With Starlight.

Now on with the story!

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**Chapter 2: Arrival to Wonderland**

Sora had seen a lot of odd things over the extremely short time he had been away from his island home; weird creatures that come in different forms called Heartless, a dog that seemed to have a human conscience (Pongo, not Goofy yet), an old fairy; but Sora was surprised that he still managed to be surprised by a running, talking rabbit; but that didn't take the cake.

In the ship that Cid had fixed up, it took nearly half a day to reach their destination. Up in space, Sora thought that he and his new friends were safe from danger, but they were not; half way through their voyage, they were attacked a fleet of Heartless spaceships. Leon managed to get away almost unscathed, the opposing ships got a few good hits in, but so did Leon.

When they arrived at Wonderland, the exit had shocked Sora; he stepped out of the ship and found himself falling, and falling, and falling before finally hitting the bottom, which he found to be an oddly blinding colored room. After landing, that's when Sora saw the rushing rabbit that seemed to not notice them at all; after hearing a few doors close, everything went quiet, at least for a moment.

Sora found out the hard way that no matter where he was, Heartless would always follow him. As he and the others were about to move, another swarm of Heartless attacked; a whole bunch of Soldiers along with a weird hovering kind, they seemed like red helicopters. Yuffie called them Red Nocturnes and she and Leon proceeded to use any means of attack to fight against them; well, almost any means, Sora hadn't realized that Leon hadn't used his gun.

As Sora fought, he suddenly found he had a new ability when a sudden fireball erupted from his Keyblade, immediately vanquishing a group of Soldiers. Yuffie said not to use it anymore while the Red Nocturnes were hovering around, she said they healed with the power of fire as well as fought with it. The trio managed to fight off the Heartless, destroying most and the rest suddenly rushing off.

"Come on…" Leon said. "We have to find a way out of here."

Sora and Yuffie followed Leon as he searched the room.

"Why are we even here?" Sora asked.

Yuffie sighed and proceeded to explain the whole situation.

"We're knights of King Mickey…" Yuffie said. "He went missing a few weeks ago and many other knights, including us have been looking for him. This is one of the worlds that are expected to hold at least some clues as to where he disappeared to. Also, we're looking for another friend, his name is Cloud Strife."

"As well as Sephiroth…" Leon murmured as he walked up to a door.

Sora decided to ask about everything else later and watched as Leon opened the door; but he and Yuffie, as well as Leon were confused by what they saw; behind the door that Leon had just opened, was another door. He pulled open the seconds door, and again another door; then he pulled open that door, then another and another. There was a small pattern going along with the doors as they were opening; they were getting smaller.

When the last door finally opened leading to the next room; it was found that even Sora had to duck in the doorway to get through. Leon went in first and when he said it was safe, Sora and Yuffie followed. Entering the room, they found that they had entered a larger slightly more weirder room than the room that they had just exited; it was very bright, especially with the sunlight shining in from the high windows.

One of the only things Leon noticed was that there seemed to be no exit from the room. He told Sora and Yuffie to look around to see if they could find any way out; the three continued their search.

Yuffie saw a bed and went to sit down on it to see how soft it was; she bounced in it three times and suddenly it went into the wall, causing her to fall onto the floor.

"Yuffie, why did you do that?" Leon asked.

"I couldn't help it!" Yuffie said as she stood up. "It was so cute and looked so comfy."

Leon rolled his eyes and continued to look around.

"Who are all of you?" A sudden new unfamiliar voice said. "Why are you here and making all of this racket?"

Everyone looked around, trying to look for the source of the voice, but couldn't find it.

"Oh, look down you buffoons!!!" The voice said.

They all looked down, but didn't see whoever was talking. Leon looked around along the walls, then he spotted a moving doorknob; bending down on one knees before it, he was a little surprised to see a face on the door, the doorknob seeming to be a large nose.

"About time one of you noticed me!!!" The doorknob said.

Sora and Yuffie bent down on either side of Leon to see what he had found; they as well were surprised.

"Who are all of you?" The doorknob asked.

"We don't have time to explain." Leon said.

Yuffie was kinder.

"Can you please tell us of a way to get out of here?" Yuffie asked kindly. "We're on a search and we really must be on our way."

"I'm the only way in and out of this house and all of you are far too big to pass me." The doorknob said. "Stand up and look to the table, you'll see two potions. The orange bottle is for growth and the blue bottle is for shrinkage; once you drink some of the blue potion, you'll be small enough to go through me."

The trio stood and saw what the doorknob said would be on the table. Leon took it upon himself to drink the potion first; for a moment, nothing happened, then he let out a gasp as he felt himself suddenly falling to the floor. He looked up at Sora and Yuffie, waiting for them to drink the potion. Yuffie had a little laugh at Leon being so small, but drank the potion immediately after; then finally Sora did so as well.

The trio rushed over to the doorknob and were shocked to find that the doorknob had actually fallen asleep. Yuffie tried to open the door, but it was locked.

"We have to wake him up!" Yuffie said. "Maybe if he's awake he'll unlock."

"We may not have-" Leon said; he was interrupted by the sound of incoming Heartless. "…time." He finished.

They tried to make quick work of those Heartless; but as soon as one was destroyed, it seemed the three took the destroyed Heartless place.

"We need to really get out of here!" Yuffie yelled as she threw her pinwheel.

Leon batted away a group of Heartless that surrounded him and looked around, something caught his eye.

"Follow me!!!" He yelled, then he rushed off; Sora and Yuffie hot on his heels.

Maybe it was a good thing that Yuffie had sat on the bed earlier, because there seemed to be another exit where the bed used to be on the wall. The trio rushed into the dark passage, hoping to not run into anymore Heartless for at least a short while.

------------------

Upon exiting the strange house, the trio heard a loud hammering sound and a shrill shrieking of someone speaking. Walking into a grassy passageway, the trio found themselves in the middle of a trial.

Looking around they saw that the judge was a plump woman in a wild dress with a lot of hearts on it and a crown on top of her head, she was sitting on a high throne; there were soldiers all around in the shape of cards, all of them holding various weapons; at a stand beside the high throne was a stand, and standing on the that stand was the rushing talking rabbit the that trio had seen earlier; but what caught their attention was a young girl in a blue dress trapped in an over grown bird cage.

"What's going on?" Sora asked.

Yuffie shrugged and Leon ignored the question.

"This trial is being held today, to convict that cretin!!!" The lady at the throne yelled, pointing at the girl in the cage. "She tried to steal my heart!!!"

The trio gasped upon hearing that, they knew that the girl didn't try to steal the lady's heart; the girl was being wrongly accused. Before Sora could stop himself, he stepped forward.

"She didn't try to steal your heart!!!" He yelled.

"Who's that?!" The lady on the throne yelled.

The rabbit puffed up and spoke.

"You dare say the Queen of Hearts is wrong?!" The rabbit yelled.

Yuffie stepped up and stood by Sora's side.

"We know for a fact that that young girl didn't try to steal your heart!" Yuffie said.

Leon was fuming.

"Will you two shut up?!" Leon hissed, loud enough for only him and his comrades to hear. "We're not supposed to interfere with the situations with the worlds we visit!!!"

That was news to Sora, Yuffie didn't seem to care what Leon said at the moment.

"Oh really, I suppose you know who tried to steal my heart?" The Queen said.

"Yes, we do know." Yuffie said.

Leon lunged forward and grabbed both Sora and Yuffie by their shoulders; he dragged them a little ways away towards him and bent down to speak to them.

"What are you doing?!" He hissed at Yuffie. "You know we can't do anything to help the girl."

"Yes we can!" Yuffie said. "They're going to kill her if we don't."

"How do you know?" Leon asked.

"Look around…" Sora said simply.

Leon looked around and saw that there was not one card soldier without a weapon; looking to the front of the birdcage holding the unknown girl, he saw a couple of card soldier sharpening scythes. Leon sighed, knowing there was no way around it.

"We have to do this as quickly as possible." Leon said.

Sora and Yuffie nodded and turned back to the queen, who was whispering something to the rabbit. They waited for the queen and rabbit to stop speaking to one another before continuing with the trial; the rabbit spoke.

"The queen has agreed to give you one hour, to find any clue to prove this girl's innocence." The rabbit said. "If the proof is not found in an hour, this young girl will die a slow and painful death."

Before anyone could do anything; another voice spoke.

"Trust me when I say you don't need to give them an hour!" The voice yelled.

It was familiar to Sora; he had heard that voice before back on the islands, when he was in the cave adding to the drawing. The same figure from that day suddenly dropped from the sky and landed to the ground with the grace of a cat; the moment the figure's feet touched the ground, a swarm of Shadow Heartless appeared and attacked everything.

Most of them headed over to the cage the girl was trapped in for some odd reason; Sora and the others tried to get over to her, but they were dealing with the sudden arrival of Soldier Heartless. Sora heard a piercing scream, he tried to figure out who it was; but before he could do anything, his world turned dark.

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The next time Sora woke up, he found himself in the middle of an odd forest. Sitting up, he looked around and saw a spectacular sight of gargantuan flowers; continuing to look around, he spotted the unconscious bodies of his friends. Getting up quickly, he rushed over to them and shook them awake.

"Hey guys!" Sora said. "Wake up!"

Leon let out a pained groan and sat up, Yuffie a small moan and she sat up as well; they both looked around confused.

"Just who in the world was that guy?" Yuffie asked.

"I don't know, nor do I want to know." Leon said as he looked around.

After checking over themselves for wounds, they soon came to realize that Sora's Keyblade seemed to be missing.

"Where is it?!" Sora asked as he looked around.

"The power probably absorbed into your body." Leon said.

"What?" Sora asked.

"The Keyblade is able to disappear when it's not being used by the owner." Leon explained. "It appears anytime you want it with practice; since you're not so experienced with it, it'll probably only appear when you are in danger."

"That you are right young man." A new voice said.

"What's going on now?" Yuffie asked as she looked around.

Leon looked up above at a tree; he pointed up.

"Up there…" He said as he pointed.

Following Leon's finger, the others saw a large bouncing smile on a tree branch. It bounced up and down, side to side for another moment before disappearing. The smile appeared again on the ground before the tree; then slowly a body formed around it, showing a large, plump, fat cat.

"Why hello!" The cat said. "Cheshire Cat, pleased to meet you!"

Sora just couldn't get used to the talking animals, first a talking rabbit, now a fat purple talking cat; his mouth dropped. Yuffie patted his shoulder for comfort.

"If you think this is shocking…" Yuffie whispered to him. "Wait till you meet Donald and Goofy."

"And King Mickey…" Leon murmured.

"It's a shame really…" The cat said as it trotted around. "Another heart has been stolen, another one of the most important as well. And the heart of the most powerful has been split in two…"

When Cheshire spoke of a heart split in two, Sora couldn't help but think that the fat cat was speaking of Riku.

"On this journey, always come to expect one thing, the unexpected…" With that said, Cheshire bowed and disappeared.

"Come on…" Leon said. "I'm actually getting the creeps just standing in here." With that, he started to walk, his comrades following.

"Our princess has been taken away from us…" A soft voice said; then a chorus of more voices said the same thing. It took only moments for the trio to realize that the voices were coming from the huge flowers.

"How are they talking?" Sora asked.

"There is magic everywhere Sora…" Yuffie said. "The magic within these flowers gives them lives."

"Yeah…" Leon said. "And the Heartless within this world are bent on destroying it."

A few more minutes of listening to the flowers, Sora spoke again.

"Their princess, do you think that they are talking about the Queen of Hearts?" Sora asked.

"Most likely…" Yuffie said. "She seems to be the main royalty here."

The trio continued on their path; then off in the distance, a passage to another room caught their attention. Cautiously, they entered the room; only to be confused by a large set up table, no one but themselves was in the room.

"Very Merry Unbirthday to you…" Yuffie said suddenly.

"What?" Leon asked confused.

Yuffie nodded to something in the room.

Leon and Sora saw a poster on the wall of green behind the large main chair of the room. On the poster weren't only the words that Yuffie had said, but the strange picture of an over grown hare and a man with a large hat.

"Let's go…" Leon said as he turned around; just as he was about to exit, the passage way suddenly disappeared and he and the others were trapped in the room.

A large horde of Heartless suddenly formed and began to attack.

"Oh, baby cousin!" A familiar voice yelled.

Looking up above, Sora saw Wakka suddenly drop in and he batted away one of the Soldiers that tried to attack him.

"Wakka!" Sora yelled.

In Wakka's hand was an odd looking sword, it looked much like the Keyblade, but it didn't look like one; it looked like a huge dark wing, like a bat's wing really. Wakka swung it at the Heartless like a sword and destroyed some of them.

"Another Keyblade?" Yuffie asked Leon.

Leon shook his head.

"It can't be possible, can it?" He asked himself.

The Heartless suddenly disappeared as suddenly as they appeared; Wakka was standing on the table looking around for them, when he saw that he coast was clear, he turned to his cousin.

"How have you been?" Wakka asked Sora with a smile.

Sora jumped up onto the table and dove at Wakka; Wakka grabbed Sora into a tight hug; then held him away to examine him to make sure he wasn't hurt.

"Are you okay?" Wakka asked Sora.

Sora nodded.

"I was so worried about you…" Sora said.

"I was worried about you too Sora…" Wakka said. "Do you know of any of the others?"

"Kairi is okay, she's in Traverse Town right now." Sora said. "But Tidus and Selphie aren't doing so well…they're hearts were taken away by the Heartless."

"Oh no…" Wakka whispered.

A cough from behind them caught their attention; the duo looked down at the other onlookers.

"This is a touching reunion…" Leon said. "But we really must be going."

"Can Wakka come with us?" Sora asked.

"Of course." Yuffie said. "Any friend of yours who knows how to fight is welcome to travel with us."

"Oh! Then that means when we find Riku, he can come with us too!" Sora said.

"Wait a minute; you don't know where Riku is?" Wakka asked.

A sad look passed over Sora's face as he shook his head.

"No…" Sora said. "I was going to ask you if you knew where he was; you disappeared with him, so I figured you know where he is."

Wakka shook his own head.

"No, I don't." Wakka said. "I woke up in a strange world alone with this thing in my hand." He lifted the odd sword for everyone to see. "I had practice on destroying some of those weird creatures with this thing; then a portal in the world I was in opened up."

"So, it led to here." Yuffie said.

Wakka nodded.

"I found you guys by chance when I climbed over the bush and jumped in." Wakka said. "Good thing too, it seemed that you guys were loosing."

"You wish!" Sora said.

'Yeah, I do…' Wakka thought to himself; but he forced himself to laugh a little with Sora.

"We really need to get going now." Leon said. "Maybe we can find out what had happened to that girl and everyone else."

"What girl?" Wakka asked as he jumped off the table.

The group exited the tea room and as they traveled, they explained to Wakka what had happened before he had joined them. They all walked back the way they came when Wakka came to a stop.

"What's that?" He pointed ahead.

"Oh no, you again…" Yuffie said.

"Yes, me again." Cheshire said as he eyed Wakka. "Expect the unexpected…"

"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked.

Cheshire simply grinned and disappeared; reappearing on a flower.

"Keys are meant to lock and open doors; all you have to do is look for them." Cheshire said; he disappeared and reappeared, that time right in front of Sora.

Sora jumped back in surprise and stared down at the cat.

"This is for you." Cheshire said as he held out his paw.

In his paw was a keychain, the charm on it was the shape of a card, the ace of hearts. Sora picked it up and examined it; just as he was about to ask the cat about it, the cat disappeared again.

"I hate it when he does that!" Yuffie said.

Leon rolled his eyes and simply walked off, everyone else following him.

"Is he always like this?" Wakka asked Sora.

"Even though I've known him for a short time, I think it's safe to say yes." Sora said.

------------------

Leon led his group over back to the escape they used to run out of the odd house that they had started in.

"What are we doing back here?" Yuffie asked.

"Maybe we can find a clue we missed or something…" Leon said. "It probably won't hurt to look again."

"I bet it will…" Sora whispered.

Yuffie giggled, while Wakka looked confused.

The group went into the dark passage way and came out the other end; Sora, Leon, and Yuffie were surprised to see that Wakka was huge.

"How come-" Yuffie didn't get to finish what she was about to say.

"He didn't drink the potion, remember?" Leon said. "Hey Wakka! Do us a favor and help us to the orange bottle on the table!" He yelled.

Wakka looked around and saw the table; he walked over to it and picked up the orange bottle. He walked back to the others and bent down with the bottle in hand, staring down at them.

"What do I do with it now?" Wakka asked.

"Help us get a drink of it." Leon said.

Wakka tilted the bottle to Leon and Leon took a drink of the potion; Wakka stood back as smoke suddenly covered the room, when it faded, it revealed a normal sized Leon. Wakka helped the remaining two with the drink and they were back to their original size in no time.

"There seemed to be nothing here for us to find." Yuffie said. "Well, not exactly…" She was talking of Sora's keychain.

The sound of arriving Heartless filled everyone's ears and they readied themselves; what they saw they weren't expecting. What they saw was a wildly colored gangly jumpy Heartless; they almost didn't think it was a Heartless, but the red heart symbol on its center told other wise.

"Is that another boss?" Sora asked Leon.

"I guess so…" Leon said.

Everyone ducked when the Heartless suddenly did a sort of whirlwind attack, its arms flailed all over the place trying to hit them.

Wakka jumped into action. He struck the tall Heartless and it got batted back a few feet, hitting a wall. It tried to stand up, but Wakka managed to bat it back down. Only a few minutes later, the Heartless was defeated, but it did manage to get a few good hits in.

Sora jumped up and rushed over to his cousin.

"Wakka, are you okay?" Sora asked Wakka.

"Yeah…" Wakka said; he was bent down, his hands on his knees while he caught his breath. "I'm…" He didn't get to finish as he suddenly leaned forward passed out cold.

Sora quickly caught him; Leon helped Wakka lay on the floor. Leon frisked himself looking for something; after a moment he found in one of his pockets and took out what he had found. It was a vial of something familiar to Sora, a potion to restore strength, from the looks of it, it was hi-potion. Leon helped the potion down Wakka's throat and closed the emptied bottle, placing it back in his pocket.

"That was a quite interesting battle." The doorknob said.

Yuffie turned to the doorknob and glared.

"Oh, so you woke up!" Yuffie huffed.

"I can't help it at times!" The doorknob said. "When I feel sleepy, no matter the situation, I don't care, I'll go to sleep."

Sora walked over to the doorknob and bent down before it, eying it for a moment. Just as he was about to say something; something odd between the doorknob and his Keyblade happened. A sudden beam of light erupted from the tip of the key and went to the doorknob, the doorknob went still as the light hit it, a loud click from inside of the doorknob sounded and the light from the Keyblade disappeared.

"What was that?" The doorknob said as he looked at Sora's blade.

"That…" Yuffie said. "Was most likely one of the answers to that cat's riddles."

Leon heaved Wakka's heavy form onto his back and stood with him.

"It's going to take awhile for the potion to take effect in restoring his strength; we're wasting time here now, let's go." Leon said.

"Bye-bye!" Yuffie said.

Sora said the same and they both stood.

Following Leon, the group made their way back to the ship.

To be continued…

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New discoveries and found friends! What else will happen on this adventure?

Please send me reviews!!!


	4. Arrival to Olympia and Found Connections

Back for another update everyone!!! Sorry it took so long, a few computer problems here and there prevented me from what need to be done. Thank you to all of those who took the time to read the story, it is greatly appreciated.

Special thank you to: Cover Me With Starlight, Smiley Smackdown, ChibiFrubaGirl, and TheDarkTraveller.

Now on with the story!

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**Chapter 3: Arrival To Olympia and Found Connections**

The trio had left Wakka on the ship so he could continue resting, as he hadn't woken up from the attack back that had happened back in Wonderland. As they were arriving to the world, Sora had placed the card Keychain on his Keyblade; he was surprised when it had taken a new form. Even on the way to the other world they traveled to, the ship was attacked by another fleet of Heartless; Leon managed to get away again, but he said that he was worried for the ship, he said it may not be able to hold up to another attack.

The world that they had just entered was the world of Olympus. As they looked around, Leon spotted a pair of huge doors.

"Hopefully that's where the arena is…" Leon said as he led the way over to them.

As the trio arrived to the doors, a series of loud gunshots were heard from the other side; then a loud howling came as well. The trio looked at each other, silently debating rather if they should continue on or turn back.

"We can't turn back…" Leon said. "This is one of the said places that may hold clues as to where King Mickey may be."

Another series of gunshots sounded, what followed that time was loud barking and growling.

"Come on." Leon said as he rushed to the doors; he shoved them open and was surprised, as well as the others, at what he saw.

There was a man with long raven black hair wearing a long red cloak running around the arena; he was running away from a huge three headed demon dog. The man suddenly whirled around, running backwards now, and with two large golden handguns started shooting at the huge dog. The dog swerved around trying to avoid the bullets, but most still hit it; it let out loud howls of pain and barked angrily. The man whirled around again and gained a little more speed continuing to run away from the dog. The dog suddenly stopped running after the man; it only took the man a few seconds to realize he wasn't be chased and he stopped, turning around to see what had happened, guns drawn before him just in case. The three heads panted wildly, then it seemed that the one on the right suddenly passed out, followed by the one on the left, then finally the middle; the body fell to the ground in one big quaking thud.

Leon and Sora looked on in amazement at the man, they watched as he holstered his guns. The pair was suddenly caught by surprise when Yuffie suddenly went running over to the unknown man.

"Vincent!!!" Yuffie yelled.

Well, at least unknown to them.

Sora and Leon continued to watch and were surprised when Yuffie suddenly grabbed the man, who was apparently named Vincent, into a tight hug around his neck. Vincent was very tall, so he had to bend down for Yuffie to hug him; he patted Yuffie's back as she hugged him. Words were exchanged for a moment and then Vincent suddenly shifted his gaze to the young men still standing near the door.

Sora didn't know about Leon, but those eyes sent chills down his spine, even from the distance that he was at, he could see that Vincent's eyes were an unusual shade of blood red.

Together with Vincent, Yuffie walked back to Leon and Sora. When they got close enough, Sora could see that Vincent was eying him; Sora stood ridged.

"Is it true that he is the Keyblade Bearer?" Vincent said.

"Yup!" Yuffie said. "Come on Sora, show him your blade."

Sora tried to summon it, he amazed himself back on the ship when he had summoned it without being in danger, but now standing in front of Vincent, he wasn't able to.

Yuffie frowned slightly.

"He can't summon it now, but he may later." Yuffie said. "But he's the Keyblade Bearer."

Vincent's gaze shifted from Sora to Leon.

"And you're Leon Leonheart?" Vincent asked.

"And what's it to you?" Leon asked.

"I've had encounters with one Sephiroth…" Vincent said.

Leon and Yuffie gasped.

"I'm sorry to say, I haven't seen him for quite awhile." Vincent said. "The last time I spotted him was almost a year ago in Halloween Town. He spoke of you and another, Cloud Strife."

Leon swallowed.

"Have you seen Cloud?" Leon asked.

"Never met him…" Vincent said. "Sephiroth seemed to speak fondly of you both."

Leon's eyes narrowed. Yuffie bumped Vincent's shoulder, signaling that that was enough for now.

Sora was confused about the whole situation.

"Whoa!!!" A loud voice yelled.

Looking to the other side of the arena, the group saw an odd man walking around the body of the demon dog. The man was very short and looked like he was half goat. After the man was done looking over the dogs' body, he rushed over to Vincent.

"How the hell did you do all of that?!" The goat man asked.

"The dog wasn't immune to my bullets." Vincent said.

The goat man looked surprised.

"How the hell is that even possible?" The goat man asked. "Cerberus was created by Hades himself; that dog is invincible of everything but Hades and Zeus!"

Yuffie smiled.

"Vincent has his way of creating amazing weapons…" Yuffie said. "Never underestimate him."

The goat man looked back over at Cerberus' body.

"Well I'll be damned…" He said; then he looked back up at Vincent. "Well, you're in."

Yuffie got really interested.

"In? In what?" She asked.

"The tournament that will be held here; as soon as this place is cleaned up." The goat man said as he handed Vincent a parchment paper.

The trio looked around as Vincent signed the parchment, noticing for the first time the damage that was done. Most of the large stands and seats were reduced the rubble; there were burn marks and claw marks at most corners of the large arena, bullet holes accompanying them.

Sora turned his attention back to Vincent and took in the man's appearance for the first time. The man's long raven hair went down past his knees; a long strap of red cloth was wrapped around his head as a headband to keep his bangs from falling in his eyes. Sora noticed for the first time that Vincent's red eyes like a cat's, the pupils looked like a cat's almond shaped ones. Vincent was wearing mostly black, a black button-up shirt and a pair of long legged black pants, various buckles buckled around him. His long cape was shredded at the end, around his neck being buckled on by two black buckles. At his feet were a pair of golden armor boots; Sora couldn't help but think of how uncomfortable they must've been. Sora's attention were quickly drawn to Vincent's hands; the left hand was normal, a hand covered in a black bucked glove with three buckles, fingerless; but the right hand caught Sora's attention more, he couldn't believe he didn't notice it before; the hand was a large golden claw! The arm extending all the way up to the elbow, the fingers were long sharp golden claws; Sora couldn't help but gawk.

"Sora!" Yuffie scolded. "It's not nice to stare!!!"

Sora snapped out of his gaze and blush furiously when he realized what he had been doing, he looked up at Vincent; noticing for the first time that he must have been over six feet tall.

"I'm sorry." Sora said. "I shouldn't have-" He didn't get to finish.

"It's quite alright." Vincent said. "I get used to the stares." He bent down and handed the parchment back to the goat man; Phil gave Vincent a small card. "Thank you Phil."

Phil nodded and began to walk off; Leon called out to him.

"What can we do to participate?" Leon called to Phil.

Phil stopped and turned around; he eyed Leon, then Yuffie, then finally Sora.

"I think you may do well in the tournament…" Phil said. "But I highly doubt that the little miss and pipsqueak can do much good."

"Hey!" Yuffie and Sora yelled, glaring at Phil.

"There's a simple test you must pass." Phil said.

Vincent scoffed.

"Simple?" He asked in a monotone voice. "I'd like to see what you think is hard."

Phil smirked.

"You'll see that during the tournament." Phil said. "Meanwhile, you come with me." He pointed at Leon.

"And what about us?" Sora asked for himself and Yuffie.

"Are you kidding, I'd rather burn in hell for eternity than watch the two of you embarrass yourselves in my competition." Phil said as he walked away with Leon.

Leon silently leered at Phil; he turned back to Sora and Yuffie and gave them a reassuring glance as he walked off with Phil. Everyone watched as they went to the other side through another pair of doors.

Sora and Yuffie were fuming.

"Who the hell does that short as goat man think he's talking to?!" Yuffie yelled out steaming.

"No world outside of our home has any information of those competitions." Vincent explained. "It doesn't matter how many times you won back then; so long as no one out here knows about it, it doesn't count."

"Yeah, but still…" Yuffie huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I bet Sora would kill in that tournament!"

Sora smiled.

"So, you really are the Keyblade Bearer." Vincent said.

Sora nodded; he was suddenly curious as to how Yuffie and Vincent knew each other.

"How do you guys know each other?" Sora asked.

"Vincent's like my older brother!" Yuffie said as she hugged Vincent again, Vincent wrapped one arm around her shoulders. "I've known him ever since I was three and he was nine."

"When I moved to Hollow Bastion back then, Yuffie was the only friend I had; even though there was a major age difference then, I didn't really mind." Vincent said. "I was an only child and though I never admitted it, I always wanted to be a big brother."

Sora nodded in understanding. He, Yuffie, and Vincent walked over to the stands and sat down on them, still talking to one another.

"When I was fourteen, I was selected to be a knight for King Mickey." Yuffie said. "Vincent was too, but for some odd reason he declined."

"I didn't want to be trapped in the confines of being a knight at such young age." Vincent said. "I was quite surprised when you accepted. And how old is that Leon fellow?"

"He just turned twenty-one like four months ago." Yuffie said.

"And I only stand about two years older than him." Vincent said. "That age by many terms is very young. When I met Sephiroth, he told me about Cloud and Leon; I was shocked at how young they were and they were both knights. Most people don't reach knighthood until they are at least in their late twenties."

"Yeah…" Yuffie said. "Me, Leon, and Cloud are in fact some of the youngest to ever be knighted."

"What do you have to do?" Sora said.

"King Mickey is sort of picky." Yuffie said; she laughed and whispered to herself that she had made a rhyme before she continued. "He wanted people with pure or enlightened hearts; it was hard to find people at the proper age for knighthood with that, so he selected a few young warriors. I never met Leon and Cloud until I left Hollow Bastion a little over two years ago; I was never aware we lived in the same world until we were all partnered up."

"Whatever happened to this Cloud person?" Vincent asked.

"He disappeared one day…" Yuffie said. "No one's seen him since he went off on that mission; this was before King Mickey disappeared, a year ago."

"When I met Sephiroth, he was looking for Cloud." Vincent explained.

"Never say that to Leon…" Yuffie said.

"Why?" Sora asked.

"Because those two have been dueling for Sephiroth's heart ever since they met each other; they're associates, not friends." Yuffie explained. "Both of them knew Sephiroth as a child at one point or another in their own childhoods. We all met him in Traverse Town when we first arrived; they fell for him hard."

"Did they ever find out that they had both known Sephiroth as children?" Sora asked.

Yuffie nodded.

"Sephiroth reminisced with both of them the times they had spent together; each over heard each other's conversations with Leon." Yuffie said. "Contrary to belief, Leon stands about four months older than Sephiroth, while Cloud stands about two…"

"Oh…" Vincent said. "You're saying that because when people first see Sephiroth, they'd automatically assume that he's older than both of them."

Yuffie nodded again.

"You should know that, he's about your height." Yuffie said.

"Exactly the same actually." Vincent said.

"What happened to Sephiroth?" Sora asked.

"He said that he was going to see what he could do in Hollow Bastion." Yuffie said. "Like your island home, Hollow Bastion was destroyed by Heartless as well; Sephiroth was raised in an orphanage there and it's his home world, so he went back to see what he could do to help. That was well over a year ago and we haven't seen him since. I was a little surprised when you mentioned seeing him in Halloween Town."

"I first met Sephiroth in Hollow Bastion." Vincent explained. "Then oddly in Agrabah; then finally in Halloween Town."

"I heard clothing changes to actual costume in that world, is it true?" Yuffie asked eagerly. 

"That's quite true." Vincent said.

"What was Sephiroth in Halloween Town?" Yuffie asked.

"Either he was a grim reaper without a scythe or he was covering himself up with a black cloak." Vincent said. "When I met him in Halloween Town, there was something wrong."

"What do you mean?" Yuffie asked.

"He wasn't acting like himself; he was cold and distant, and he was really curt." Vincent said. "The feeling of warmth was gone and his eyes showed no emotion."

"Really?" Yuffie asked in a worried voice.

Vincent nodded.

"Our encounter happened so fast, I didn't even get a chance to even think of what was wrong." Vincent said.

"Maybe we should tell this to Leon." Yuffie said. "It's something he'd like to know."

"Have you met someone named Riku?" Sora asked suddenly.

Vincent shook his head.

"No, I haven't; why?" Vincent asked.

"He's my best friend…" Sora said; again, the ping of sadness touched his heart. "When my home was destroyed by the Heartless, I was separated from all of my friends. Back in Traverse Town my friends Kairi, Tidus, and Selphie are there; but Tidus' and Selphie's hearts have been taken away by the Heartless. My cousin Wakka has found us and is in the ship recovering."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but no, I haven't heard of or seen your friend Riku." Vincent said. "What does he look like?"

"He looks like a miniature-teen version of Sephiroth…" Yuffie murmured.

Sora looked at Yuffie oddly. Yuffie smiled back at him.

"Kairi showed me a picture of all three of you from just a few weeks before the Heartless attacked." Yuffie said. "I was shocked at how much he and Sephiroth look alike."

"Really?" Sora asked. "Riku's an orphan…and your friend Sephiroth is an orphan."

Yuffie thought for a moment.

"Maybe there's a possibility that they're related in some way…" Yuffie murmured. "Even though they look so much alike, I don't see why Riku would be on Destiny Islands and Sephiroth in Hollow Bastion; I don't even know if it's possible for them to be related because of that. How old is Riku?"

"He's fifteen." Sora said; then he corrected himself. "At least that's what the doctor thought. Riku came to the islands one night during a star shower years ago, no one knew where he came from and he couldn't remember anything except for his own name."

"Did he have some sort of a locket?" Yuffie asked.

Sora jumped at that.

"Yeah!!!" Sora said. "It's a sapphire heart shaped one! The heart is some sort of symbol on platinum, there's also a small piece of gold on top of the heart shaped like a crown."

Yuffie was getting excited herself.

"Sephiroth has one just like that!!!" Yuffie said. "Has he ever been able to open it?"

Sora shook his head.

"Neither has Sephiroth!" Yuffie said. "He told me that no matter what he did, the locket never opened."

"Riku did that also, he wasn't any different." Sora said.

"I have no doubt in my mind now that those two are related to each other somehow." Vincent said.

Yuffie chuckled and elbowed Vincent playfully.

"But the question remains, where are they?" Vincent asked. "All of this has to do with Ansem."

Yuffie gasped.

"How do you know about Ansem?" Yuffie asked.

"I have my sources…" Vincent said. "King Mickey's knights aren't the only ones fighting against him."

Before Yuffie could speak; the doors on the other side of the arena opened; out came Phil, a very ruffled looking Leon followed him.

The trio on the stands remained quiet as they watched the duo walk up to them. Phil spoke first.

"He passed." Phil said. "Used some of the best techniques I've ever seen."

"When can we try out?" Sora asked.

"How about…?" Phil pretended to think for a moment, crossing his arms and rubbing his chin. "Never?" He threw his head back and let out a barking laugh.

"Why you-" Before Yuffie could finish, the familiar sound of arriving Heartless filled the arena, echoing around.

On instinct without thinking, Sora drew the Keyblade; surprising both Vincent and Phil.

Sora didn't notice his action as he batted away the first Soldier he saw. He looked around the arena and saw that there was a new addition to the bunch; they looked like blue versions of the Red Nocturne, which they flew around along with. The blue Heartless shot out beams of ice and snow. When a swarm of Soldiers came at him, he pointed his blade and surprised himself when a sudden beam of ice came from the blade; freezing a group of Soldiers where they stood. Sora quickly broke them down and was suddenly surrounded by more of the hovering blue Heartless.

He looked around and saw that everyone was battling with Heartless; Phil was being downright attacked by a Soldier. Sora batted down the hovering blue Heartless that were attacking him and rushed to Phil's aid. Sora knew the attack by heart already and tried to use the blizzard on the Soldier attacking Phil; but was shocked when a hovering blue Heartless swooped in and absorbed the attack, then firing it back at him. Sora was lucky to dodge that attack; it continued shooting at him and he had no choice at the moment but to run.

He looked back at Phil and was confused when the Soldier that was attacking him was suddenly vanquished. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw Wakka running over to help out with the battle. With Wakka's help, it was done with quickly; two Keyblades did the trick.

When the Heartless finally disappeared; everyone was left panting trying to catch their breath. Wakka ruffled Sora's hair; Sora batted Wakka's hand away with his hand.

"Good work Sora!" Wakka said.

"It was you." Sora said. "Without your help we'd all be dead."

Wakka laughed.

"Thank goodness you woke up when you did." Yuffie said as she walked over to Wakka.

Wakka nodded.

Phil walked over, standing before Sora, Yuffie and Wakka.

"Well, you two…" Phil began. "Including you, whoever you are…" He said to Wakka. "Have proven yourselves." He dug in his little pouch and pulled out three little cards. "Congrats, you're Heroes now; this will be your ticket to participating in the competition." In his other hand, he held three parchment papers and a pen.

One by one, Sora, Yuffie, and Wakka signed the parchment papers and received their Hero cards.

"The tournament will start soon." Phil said. "Just come back and check in to see when it happens, alright."

The trio nodded.

Phil turned and walked off, grumbling something no one could hear.

Leon and Vincent walked up to the trio.

"Well, I must get going now." Vincent said.

"No…" Yuffie said. "Why don't you travel with us for awhile?"

"Tempting offer…" Vincent said. "Maybe I'll take you up on that some time soon, but now is not a good time." He bent down and kissed Yuffie's forehead; then bid everyone else farewell before departing.

Everyone watched as he walked off through the exit doors.

Wakka let out a loud yawn.

"Okay, anyone care to fill me in on everything that has happened while I was asleep?" Wakka asked.

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Hades watched in fury at everything that was happening; none of which was supposed to happen. Sora, Leon, and Yuffie were supposed to be dead.

He whirled around from his viewing flames, his own head of flames flailing wildly.

"How could that little runt grow so powerful in such a short amount of time?" Hades asked himself. "He hasn't even had the blade for a week!"

The flames fluttered for a moment before going blank, nothing showing, but a deep voice came from it.

"I see that your part hasn't gone well." The deep voice said.

"Well, you said that the runt wasn't that powerful, how wrong were you." Hades said to the flames. "And guess what, they have a new ally; though he's not traveling with them now, I can tell he's going to be a huge problem. Just how the hell was he able to bring down Cerberus?"

"You don't realize it, do you?" The voice in the flames said.

"Realize what?" Hades asked. "That everything you planned will fail in the end."

"Now, that one of their most trusted allies is one of their worst enemies." The voice in the flames said.

To be continued…

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Hmmm, what does Hades mean?

What are the connection between Sephiroth and Riku?

Please send reviews!!!


	5. Dreaming in the Jungle

Hello everyone, back for a quick update!!! Sorry I took so long to update; I got a new computer and it took a little while to get used to it, as well as transfer all of my old documents from my old computer into the new one. Well anyway, thank you to all of those who took the time to read my story; and as always a special thank you to those who took the time to review; all of this will always be appreciated!!!

Now on with the story!

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**Chapter 4: Dreaming in the Jungle**

The ship ride so far was peaceful; Leon had set course back for Traverse Town, the whole time hoping that no Heartless fleets would attack the ship. Yuffie sat down in the passenger seat playing a game on a handheld; and Sora and Wakka sat down talking to one another.

"So you think that this Sephiroth fellow is really Riku's brother?" Wakka asked Sora after he had explained what Yuffie had told him.

Sora shrugged.

"It's a huge possibility; I wish I can see a picture of him." Sora said.

Yuffie pressed a few more buttons on her handheld and handed it over to Sora.

"Here's what he looks like." Yuffie said. "Cloud's in the picture too."

Sora took the handheld and looked at the picture, letting out a loud gasp as his eyes widened.

Yuffie was right; Sephiroth did look a lot like Riku, almost the splitting image. There was a height difference; Riku was only about 5'9"; in the picture Sephiroth stood taller than Leon, who he was standing next to, standing on the other side to him was who had to be Cloud. Sephiroth's hair was the same shade of silver-ish white as Riku's, but his was longer, much longer, cascading past his shoulders and waist. Sephiroth's eyes were a beautiful shade of emerald while Riku's was a breathtaking shade of aquamarine.

Wakka looked at the picture over Sora's shoulder, thinking the same thing Sora was thinking.

As they continued to watch, the ship quaked all of a sudden.

"Shit!" Leon yelled. "Everyone sit down!!!"

Sirens went off and flashing red lights started. Leon sat at the wheel of the ship slapping at buttons on the dashboard. There were sounds of explosions outside of the ship. Sora looked out the window and could see missiles hit the sides of the ship; Heartless fleets swarming around the ship. With a large jolt, the ship suddenly surged down.

"We're going to crash!!!" Leon yelled.

Everyone gripped onto their seats and watched as everything around them went by in a blur before everything turned black.

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_Sora found himself back on his island home, sitting on the Paopu Tree. He looked around wondering how he had gotten there in the first place, wondered if everything that he had experienced was a dream itself._

"_Sora…" A voice said from behind him._

_Sora turned his back and smiled at who he saw._

"_Dad!" Sora yelled as he shifted his legs around and jumped down from the tree; quickly he dove into his father's arms into a hug._

"_Hey Sky…" Sora's father greeted Sora, using his nickname. "How have you been doing?"_

_Sora had his face buried into his father's chest; Sora's father could feel his son's tears seeping through his shirt. Sora lifted his head and looked up at his father with tear-filled eyes._

_Sora's father had a pair of eyes just like his, the same exact shade of true sapphire blue; he had the same chestnut hair, almost as messy as his own, but somewhat more tamed; he wore a simple white blouse shirt and a pair of Capri pants, as always he wore a pair of leather sandals. The only thing missing from his father was the chain crown necklace that he used to wear all the time; but before he had died, he gave it to Sora, who was wearing at as they spoke._

_Sora's father patted his son's hair and ran his fingers over his son's facial features, taking everything in; he hadn't seen his son since he was ten, not believing he had missed four years out of his son's life._

"_Come on Sky…" Sora's father said. "We need to talk."_

_Together, father and son sat down on the Paopu tree and looked out over the ocean, at the softly waving sea and the seagulls flying overhead; it was a beautiful bright day back on the island._

_As Sora watched the ocean, his thoughts drifted to Riku again._

"_You miss him, don't you?" Sora's father asked._

_Sora blushed and looked at his father._

"_What?" Sora asked._

"_Don't play dumb with me son." Sora's father said. "I know you love Riku, everyone does."_

_Sora's blush intensified._

"_Even when you were a little boy, I could tell that you loved Riku; so could your mother." Sora's father said. "Trust me when I say that you took everyone by surprise with your choice."_

"_I love the both of them…" Sora said. "I don't want to hurt any of them."_

"_But your heart can't take care of the both of them." Sora's father said. "In the end result, everything will be your decision. I can't tell you who you have to choose; I know you love Riku, but you love Kairi dearly as well."_

_Sora sighed and looked back out at the ocean._

"_Close your eyes and follow your heart." Sora's father whispered._

_Sora looked at his father again, only to be shocked when he saw his father literally turn to sparkling dust in the wind, him blowing away in swirls._

"_No!" Sora yelled as he jumped off the tree and tried to catch the sparkles in his hands. "Please don't go!"_

"_I'll always be with you son…" Sora's father whispered._

_Sora looked up at his father's sparkles as he flew away in the air, over the ocean, far, far away until he couldn't see him anymore. Sora continued to look in the direction his father went long after he disappeared, standing in that one spot and remaining quiet._

_Raising his hand, he closed it over the crown of his necklace; then closed his eyes. He remained completely still; feeling as the wind that was blowing against his skin gradually stopped all together, the sound of the ocean disappeared, he couldn't anything at all; suddenly, he felt like he was being watched._

_He opened his eyes and gasped when he saw Riku standing before him. He looked around and saw that he was no longer at the Cove; it seemed like that he was in a dark room, everything was pitch dark, but somehow he could see Riku clearly._

"_Riku!" Sora said._

"_Sora…" Riku said in a soft voice._

_Shivers went up and down Sora's spine when he heard that voice, as far as he was concerned it was far too long since he had heard Riku's voice, and he was so happy to see him; but as he looked over Riku, he frowned slightly._

_Riku's posture wasn't that of the straight, strong posture he had seen on Riku everyday; Riku was standing before Sora weakened, he looked scared and sad. Sora looked into Riku's eyes and saw that they were the same lifeless shade that he had last seen them in._

"_Sora…" Riku said again, the voice was weak and sad itself. "Please help me…"_

_Sora stepped forward to Riku, but Riku drew further away._

"_You have to find…" Riku didn't finish; his body fell to the ground in a dead drop._

"_Riku!" Sora yelled again; he started to rush over to Riku, but was batted back by a Soldier Heartless that appeared out of nowhere._

_Before Sora could even attempt to stand, Shadow Heartless surrounded Riku's body and wrapped around him, dragging him away._

_Sora tried to summon his Keyblade, but he couldn't. Soldiers and Shadows held him back, preventing him from moving forward to Riku; all he could do was watch helplessly as the other Heartless took Riku away from him again._

"_Riku!!!" Sora yelled._

_Everything went black…_

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When Sora woke up, he sat up slowly. He looked around and realized that he was in a wooden place, a house of some sort from the looks of it. It was old and dusty everywhere he looked, but from the windows, he could see it was daytime wherever he had landed; everything within the house was covered with dust and/or sheets, some being cluttered into the center or near the walls. After a couple of moments, he stood up and walked around.

"Sora…" A voice from behind him said.

Immediately knowing whose voice it was, Sora whirled around.

"Riku!" Sora yelled happily.

Sora was happy to see Riku; he looked okay from what he could see. But when Sora looked closer, he could see that there was sadness in Riku's eyes, they were somewhat darkened from the color they normally were.

"This place reminds me of the Secret Place that me, you, and Kairi played around in when we were little." Riku said.

Sora was about to speak until he heard an odd growling sound.

'Did Cerberus follow us?' He thought to himself as he turned around to look behind him. When he turned around again, he was more than surprised to see that Riku had disappeared.

"Riku?" He called. "Riku?! Where are you?!"

He got no answer to his question; but he jumped back in horror as a large wildcat jumped out from behind the clutter. It bared its fangs at Sora and jumped down from the clutter, slowly making its way towards him; then suddenly, it charged.

Sora was quick, he drew his Keyblade, which had reverted back into Kingdom form and hit the wildcat away from him. The cat was hit away a few feet, but managed to land on its feet; quickly, it rushed towards the clutter around the room and rushed around behind it.

Sora followed the noise of the cat's footsteps as he searched for it; he knew it was going to pounce again. It happened very quickly when the cat suddenly jumped up on top of a couch and jumped up in the air trying to land on Sora. Again, Sora was able to bat it away; but it was close enough to take a swipe at him, a powerful hit that sent Sora to the floor. He was lucky to land only on his backside; he raised his blade and yelled.

"Fire!!!" He yelled.

A powerful ball of fire blasted from the tip of his blade and hit the wildcat; with a loud snarled roar it retreated back to the clutter again.

Sora quickly stood up and followed the noise of the cat's footsteps again; he was ready when it jumped out from behind the clutter again. He quickly raised his blade and yelled.

"Fire!!!"

The flame erupted from his Keyblade and hit the cat, sending it flying back towards the ground. It landed on its side that time and stood up on slightly wobbly feet, but it straightened and leered at Sora. It didn't rush towards the clutter that time, it simply stood in its charging stance, its tail waving angrily behind it.

Sora waited for the cat to move, and it did. With a loud angry snarl it charged; anger flashing in its eyes as it stared at it prey.

Sora quickly raised his Keyblade, and screamed out his attack.

"FIRE!!!"

That time instead of a ball of fire, it was a pure eruption. A clear swirl of flames came from his blade and hit the cat. A loud pained roar came from the cat that time as it was blasted back by the flames; landing yards away from Sora with a loud painful thud.

Sora panted slightly as he stared at the wildcat; that time, it didn't move. He stood there until his breath and heartbeat got back to normal; still, the cat didn't move. Cautiously, he moved towards the cat's body. As he walked up, he could see from the slow rising and falling of its stomach that it was still breathing. He thought the cat was knocked out cold that time; with its back to him, he didn't see the cat's eyes suddenly snap open.

With a great start, the cat jumped up and almost pounced on him. Sora wasn't ready at all; he let out a startled yell and closed his eyes, expecting to feel pain rush through his body again; but nothing came. He opened his eyes and they widened when he saw a man with long blond hair and wearing a loincloth wrestling with the wildcat.

The wildcat let out an angered snarl when the man suddenly spun around and kicked it back. It was obvious the cat thought it was out numbered, because it suddenly turned tail and jumped out of one of the frameless windows.

It was a full quiet minute before the man in the loincloth turned to Sora. From his standing stance, he suddenly dropped to the ground before Sora onto his knuckles. Sora stared down at him oddly.

"Who you?" The man grunted.

"Who you?" Sora repeated, confused; then he realized what the man asked. "Oh! My name is Sora!"

"Sora?" The man asked as he tilted his head to the side.

"Yeah." Sora said. "Who are you?"

"Me, Tarzan." The man said as he pointed to himself; then he pointed to Sora. "You, Sora."

"Yeah, that's right!" Sora said; then something behind Tarzan, a few yards off caught Sora's eye. "Riku…" He whispered.

Riku leaned against the wall of the house in a casual way; then looked towards Sora, a soft smile at his lips.

"Let's go." Tarzan grunted.

Sora's eyes shifted to Tarzan for just a few seconds, then his eyes shifted back to where Riku stood; but he was greatly disappointed when he found that Riku disappeared again.

He looked down at Tarzan and asked him a question; the question was the main reason why he was even there to begin with.

"Tarzan, have you ever met anyone by the name of Riku?" Sora asked him slowly; all he cared about at that moment was Riku; everyone else could hold their own at the moment, he would find them soon, right?

"Riku?" Tarzan repeated slowly.

"Yeah." Sora said. "Ri-ku." He said slowly.

After a moment, Tarzan shook his head no and turned around; walking on all fours, which Sora of course found weird, but didn't say anything.

When Tarzan realized he was walking alone, he turned to Sora and signaled for him to follow him.

"Come." Tarzan grunted.

Sora, seeing as he had no other choice and he trusted the man, started to follow him. Sora stopped when Tarzan stopped; he noticed that there was a square doorway on the floor.

Tarzan took the handle into his hand and pulled; an awful shrieking squeaking sound echoed and Sora covered his ears. Tarzan let the door fall to the ground with a loud bang and he pointed down the hole.

Sora looked down and for the first time he realized, the house he was standing in was up in a tree, and it was a far way down. He noticed quickly that there was a rope ladder tied to the tree; all he had to do was step on the thick branch holding the ladder and climb down. But when he squinted, he saw that the ladder was old and worn by the sun; he doubted it was strong enough even to support Kairi, let alone himself.

"I don't know." Sora said as he stared down at the rope. "It doesn't look strong."

Tarzan grunted and stood up; Sora looked at him wearily. Tarzan grunted and pointed to his back, Sora knew what he was trying to suggest.

"I climb on your back and you'll take me down?" Sora asked.

Tarzan looked over his shoulder at Sora and nodded.

For a moment, Sora thought about his options and saw that he had no choice, there was no way he was going to trust that rope ladder with his life. He walked up to Tarzan and Tarzan bended down for Sora to climb on; Sora wrapped his arms around Tarzan's neck and wrapped his legs around Tarzan's waist. When Tarzan knew that Sora was secure, he jumped down the hole.

Sora let out a scream of terror at what Tarzan had done; but then was amazed and relieved when Tarzan landed on a thick branch. He walked over to the trunk of the tree and climbed the rest of the way down, with Sora on his back the whole way.

As soon as they were on the ground, Sora jumped off of Tarzan's back and looked up at the tree house they had just left; it looked like a small brown dot among the greens of the leaves from the ground.

"Let's go." Tarzan grunted, he got down to all fours and led the way to wherever he was taking Sora.

Sora followed closely behind.

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Sora followed Tarzan through the forest; all the while Sora looked around for the others, and thoughts of Riku rushed through his head.

'Was he really there?' Sora thought to himself. 'Or was I imagining things?'

Sora didn't realize he was daydreaming and he was walking in a sort of daze; the thing that brought him back was a rough hand gripping his arm and tugging at him. He looked down and looked at Tarzan; Tarzan pointed ahead of them. Sora followed Tarzan's finger and saw that they had come to an opening, and in the center of that opening was a campsite. Around the campsite various things were set up, at the middle a large housing tent was set.

"We're going in there?" Sora asked Tarzan.

"Jane." Tarzan said; then he headed over towards the tent.

Sora was quick to follow.

Just as they were about to walk up in front of the flap opening, a woman walked out. She had a worried look to her features and she looked relieved to see Tarzan.

"Tarzan, who's your friend?" Jane as she studied Sora.

"Sora." Tarzan said as he pointed at him.

"Well Sora, it's nice to meet you." She said as she stepped forward. "I'm Jane." She held her hand out to him for a handshake.

"It's nice to meet you too." Sora said as he shook Jane's hand.

After a short shake, Jane studied him for a short moment before she asked him a question.

"Sora, were you here alone before Tarzan found you?" Jane asked.

Sora shook his head no.

"I was with a group of three others." Sora said. "Our ship crashed and I guess we all got separated, or I got separated from the group."

"Hmm, well maybe they aren't far…" Jane said. "Tarzan, you'll help Sora find his friends, right?"

Tarzan gave a curt nod.

"Maybe Clayton has seen your friends around." Jane said.

Just then, the flaps to the tent opened and in walked a tall stuffy looking graying man. He walked with a defying stride and when Sora saw the large gun the man had holstered to his back and the smaller guns holstered to his hips, he knew that man wasn't one to mess with; but from the moment he laid eyes on him, Sora couldn't help but be suspicious of him.

"Oh, there you are Clayton." Jane said. "I was starting to wonder where you went."

Clayton gave an oily chuckle and smirked at Jane.

"I was off doing so business." Clayton said; then he turned his attention to Sora. "Who is this I may ask?"

"Oh, this young man here is Sora." Jane said. "He will be staying with us till his friends are found. May I ask what their names are?"

"Their names are Leon, Yuffie, and Wakka." Sora said.

"Okay, we'll start searching for them as soon as possible." Jane said. "Most likely Tarzan will be helping you."

Clayton picked up a box of bullets and left the tent without a word.

"Clayton is always busy as you can see." Jane said. "I have to find a few nuts and bolts to fix something; but I'll keep an eye out for any of your friends. The only one not too busy is Tarzan; you'll help Sora, won't you?"

Again, Tarzan gave a curt nod.

"Alright, it's settled then." Jane said. "Why don't you two head out a search now? Maybe you'll be lucky and find them all."

"Maybe." Sora said.

Tarzan started walking towards the exit of the tent with Sora following, until Sora whirled around and asked Jane a question.

"Jane, has anyone by the name of Riku come through here?" Sora asked.

"No…" Jane said. "The only ones I've seen is Tarzan, my father, Clayton, and you; that name doesn't ring a bell."

Sora sighed.

"Thank you anyway." Sora said; then he turned and followed Tarzan out of the tent.

To be continued…

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Hmmm, Sora's been found, but just where are the others?

Please send reviews!!! They are the keys to opening the door!


	6. Odd Keychains and Wrong Accusations

Hello everyone, back for another update!!! Thank you to all of those who took the time to read this story, it is greatly appreciated.

Special Thanks to: Cover Me With Starlight and Smiley Smackdown.

Come on everyone, I know you're out there; please review!!!

Now on with the story!!!

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**Chapter 5: Odd Keychains and Wrong Accusations**

"I hope everyone's okay…" Yuffie said as she walked along side Leon.

"I bet they are…" Leon said. "They're probably looking for us right now…" He tried to reassure her.

The two were currently walking through the forest, looking for anyone who could help them out; but after a couple of hours, no such luck. Leon and Yuffie woke up together in a tree; they were tangled up within the thickets and vines, so it took them awhile to get out of it and climb down. It took them only a short while to remember just what had happened; and that's when Leon started cursing about the Heartless. They wondered just what had happened to the others; the only thing they had encountered were apes, little monkeys and other various animals.

Just as Yuffie was about to complain, a sudden explosion suddenly sounded. Both knights stopped and listened.

"Was that a gunshot?" Yuffie asked worriedly.

"Yeah…" Leon said. "Do you think Vincent's here?"

Yuffie shook her head.

"That didn't sound like his gun…" She said.

They continued to listen and only a moment later loud shrieking animal screams echoed from somewhere in the forest, but the echo made it sound like it came from everywhere around them.

Leon took off running in the direction the gunshot had sounded with Yuffie right at his heels.

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The moment the gunshot had sounded, Tarzan had swung Sora onto his back and took off into the trees. Sora hung onto Tarzan for dear life as the wild man swung through the trees towards wherever the gunshot had sounded. Sora didn't realize how high in the trees he and Tarzan were until Tarzan suddenly let go of the vine he was holding; Sora yelled as he and Tarzan went down, and down, and down and down. Finally, there was a sudden jolt when Tarzan finally landed, Sora was dizzy and his laid his head down on Tarzan's shoulder to steady his spinning world.

"Sora!" A familiar voice yelled.

Sora's head snapped up and he looked in the direction the voice came from.

"Wakka!" Sora said as he slowly got off of Tarzan's back; but from what he saw, his attention was no longer directed at Wakka, it was directed at something else completely. Wakka walked up beside Sora cautiously, wondering what his cousin would do or say in a situation like that.

There was a rustling in the bushes from behind Sora and Tarzan, but the pair paid no mind; they didn't have to worry either, because who rushed though were Leon and Yuffie.

"Oh my god…" Yuffie whispered.

"Oh no…" Leon whispered.

In the middle of the opening that everyone looked at the gruesome sight before them.

A large black furred body lay there, unmoving, not breathing. Around it a large puddle of blood began to form, but no one could see just where it was coming from; but everyone knew what had caused it. Its back was to the onlookers so they couldn't see if there was any sign of life anywhere else.

Tarzan walked over to the large slowly, nothing but pure anger in his eyes.

Sora noticed Leon and Yuffie had arrived and he edged over to them slowly.

"Can Heartless do this?" Sora whispered to them.

"I don't know of any Heartless that can actually shoot bullets at anything." Yuffie said. "I don't think it was a Heartless."

"Guys move!" Wakka suddenly gasped as he rushed off to the side a little.

Sora, Leon and Yuffie looked around and noticed that from around them, even more animals were coming, more gorillas. All of them surrounded the dead body and looked around for any source as to what had caused such a death.

Tarzan lifted the body slightly and turned it around to its other side, the wound that caused the death was finally shown.

Sora looked to Leon and saw that Leon didn't have his gunblade with him; he knew that Leon didn't kill the animal, but he still wondered where the man's blade was.

Everyone continued to look at the scene before them, looking on as Tarzan grunted to the gorillas around him, as if he was talking to them in their language. After a few moments another gorilla came, but that one was larger than the others that were already upon the scene. The other gorillas made way for the larger gorilla as it made its way through, even Tarzan moved out of the way. The gorilla looked at the dead body and turned to Tarzan, it grunted at him angrily, as if asking what had happened. Tarzan grunted back, backing away just slightly, as if expecting the larger gorilla to attack him.

The grunted at each other, then suddenly the large gorilla turned and eyed the other three humans that were there. Its eyes narrowed when he saw them and he briskly walked up to them.

"Kerchak!" Tarzan suddenly said.

The large gorilla turned to Tarzan, only a couple of yards away from the others; he turned to look back at Tarzan

"They didn't do it." Tarzan said.

The large gorilla apparently named Kerchak looked back to the others and eyed them, with a huff through his nose he turned away from them, that time walking away. He walked over to the dead body and bent down, arranging it into a specific position, he heaved it onto his back and walked off past Tarzan, all of the other gorillas started to follow Kerchak, all of them leaving the scene leaving Tarzan behind, except for two. Tarzan grunted to them as they softly grunted at him, speaking to him; Tarzan hugged the both of them and then the two remaining ones glanced at Sora and the others before leaving to follow the departing gorillas.

Tarzan made his way over to the others, eyeing the ones that he hadn't been with before.

"Your friends?" Tarzan asked.

Sora nodded; then he introduced them to him.

"This is my cousin Wakka, and my friends Leon and Yuffie." Sora said as he pointed to them.

Tarzan nodded hello to everyone.

Just as Yuffie was about to say hello, she turned her attention up to the trees. Everyone turned their attention to the trees; suddenly the tops were rustling as if there was something big in them.

"What's going on?" Wakka asked.

Tarzan's eyes narrowed and he stood up on both feet looking up at the tree tops.

After another moment, the cause of the noises made itself known; quickly from the leaf covered branches of the trees came a bunch of strange looking monkeys, at first glance everyone but Tarzan could tell that those they were Heartless.

Sora immediately summoned his Keyblade, as well as Wakka, Yuffie readied her weapon, but Leon was left standing.

"Go see if you can find your Gunblade quick and get back here!" Yuffie yelled at Leon as she threw her pinwheel.

Sora and Wakka jumped into battle, batting away and destroying as many monkeys as they could.

Leon looked around and reluctantly nodded, turning and running off into the brush looking for his Gunblade.

"Tarzan, go with him!" Yuffie yelled to Tarzan.

Tarzan nodded and ran off after Leon.

As Sora looked around he saw that there were two sets of monkey-looking Heartless; one was blue and the other was pink; he knew he could easily assume that the pink was a girl and the blue was a boy, there were so many of them. He shot fire and ice balls into the trees, but the monkeys were quick and dodged the attacks with ease; he found that they were strong too; the ones on the ground were giving him a good pummeling.

He looked to Wakka and Yuffie and saw that they were basically in the same condition as him. But, as he glanced at Wakka as he battled with the Heartless, he noticed a specific feature on Wakka's blade that startled him, the very Keychain that was attached to the blade; it was a red heart with an X cross in the middle, just like the symbols on the Heartless that they were fighting. Sora actually stopped fighting for a moment to observe that discovery, but his thoughts were abruptly interrupted when a monkey Heartless suddenly jumped onto him and tackled him to the ground. Sora swung his blade at it and managed to destroy it.

When the Heartless that attacked Sora was destroyed, all the others suddenly disappeared. Sora sat up and looked around and saw that everyone else was okay; he stood up to his feet slowly, Keyblade disappearing as he did so. He looked to Wakka so he could see Wakka's blade again, but Wakka had already put away his blade.

Wakka looked at him and walked over to him.

"Are you okay?" Wakka asked Sora.

"Yeah…" Sora said.

There was a rustling at the bushes again and Leon walked through, in his hand he held his Gunblade, but that wasn't what everyone was focused on.

"Leon!" Yuffie said as she rushed over to her friend. "What happened?!"

Leon was sporting a black eye and a bloody lip.

"That ape man attacked me." Leon said as he spit blood from his mouth. "He thinks I'm the one who killed that gorilla."

Sora shook his head.

"But that's impossible!" Sora said. "You didn't have your Gunblade with you."

"Try telling that to him." Leon said.

"Where's he?" Wakka asked.

"He ran off after he tackled me." Leon said. "Sora, do you know where we'll be able to find shelter?"

"It was somewhere." Sora said. "I hope I can remember where."

"Well, we trust you to lead the way." Yuffie said.

------------------

After a couple of hours of wondering, Sora finally came to a path the seemed familiar to him; he and the others were exhausted and it was nightfall in the jungle. They all wanted to find somewhere safe to stay for the night, they knew that the last place they'd ever be safe was in the middle of the jungle.

As they came to an opening, they saw that off in the distance was light; moving though the shrubbery, they finally found what they were looking for.

"Is this the place Sora?" Wakka asked.

From the tent Sora could hear Jane's voice.

"Yes, this is it." Sora said.

"Finally!" Yuffie groaned; she was aching all over.

Leon stayed quiet as he looked at the moving shadows through the fabric of the tent; Sora noticed Leon's intense stare and looked at the tent again, he saw Tarzan's shadow as well.

"I'll talk to him if you'd like." Sora said. "To try and explain to him that you weren't the one who did it."

Leon nodded to Sora in thanks.

"Come on." Yuffie said as she tugged at Sora's arm. "Introduce us already so I can get some sleep."

Sora laughed and he lead his friends over to the tent; as he and the others got closer, the conversation that was happening in the tent was clearer, and he saw that there were two others in the tent along with Tarzan and Jane.

"Well, Sora is a young teenage boy." Jane said. "He was looking for his friend, but Tarzan here…" Jane had an angry edge to her voice. "Left them somewhere in the forest."

"Them?" An elderly sounding voice said. "You mean they were found."

"That's what Tarzan said." Jane said.

"Then there was that awful murder in the jungle." Clayton's voice said. "Isn't that right Tarzan?"

Tarzan didn't answer; instead he moved towards the opening of the tent and moved the flap to peer outside.

"Sora." Tarzan grunted.

Jane rushed up beside Tarzan and looked outside too.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Jane said. "We were getting worried for you! All of you come in! It's not safe out there you know."

Together the group of four walked in.

As soon as they were seated, Sora proceeded to explain to Tarzan and everyone that Leon couldn't have been the one to have killed that gorilla because he didn't have his weapon at the time. Tarzan grunted an apology which Leon had accepted; soon all suspicions were turned to Clayton, but no one said anything. The group was introduced to Jane's father as well.

Dinner was served and before anyone noticed much, most were down for the night.

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The next morning when everyone woke up, there was something seriously wrong. What they had woken up to was the sound of panicking animals from all over the forest.

"What's going on?" Yuffie asked as she looked around; she couldn't see much from inside the tent, but she feared that something could destroy it.

"I don't know." Jane said. "I hope Clayton didn't do anything drastic; he wasn't here when I woke up."

"Come." Tarzan said suddenly, signaling for the warriors to follow him.

Everyone got up and followed Tarzan out of the tent to wherever he was leading them; Jane and her father watched as they left.

"Be careful everyone." Jane said.

------------------

When the group finally arrived to a specific scene, it was almost a half an hour walk. They arrived to a large opening where there seemed to be only Clayton standing there alone; he had his arms crossed across his chest defiantly and he smirked to the group as they arrived.

"About time you've all come." Clayton said.

"I knew you were no good." Sora said.

"Whatever gave you that clue?" Clayton mocked.

Tarzan was suddenly quaking in anger and before anyone could try and say anything, he was charging at Clayton trying to attack him.

Everyone thought that the wild man would have a clear hit at the madman, but they were shocked to see that when Tarzan was a few yards away from Clayton, he was suddenly batted away from his trail, sent flying through the air and hit a tree, falling to the ground before the tree unconscious.

"Tarzan!" Sora yelled.

Clayton threw his head back and laughed as he suddenly flew up into the air slowly; from behind him, something large flashed.

Instantly Sora and Wakka drew their blades; Leon and Yuffie readied their own weapons.

Clayton's smirk only grew as his creature revealed itself; it was basically a huge overgrown green Heartless iguana. It suddenly started charging at the gang, everyone ran off in separate directions.

Sora and Wakka threw fire attacks at the huge Heartless and it just let out weird pained noises. Its eyes went berserk as it tried to find what was causing its pain; in defense it swung its body around and tried to hit everyone with either its front or back, with everyone moving out of the way it missed.

Clayton was on the Heartless' back trying his best to keep and good grip, but he was quickly loosing the battle. When Sora and Wakka sent another fire attack at it, it suddenly jerked sending Clayton flying off its back and falling a ways off. Leon and Yuffie went after Clayton while Sora and Wakka continued to attack the large boss Heartless.

Afterwards, it didn't take long before everything was finally coming to an end. The large boss Heartless was weak and about to fall after everything that Sora and Wakka had done to it; Leon and Yuffie had been battling with Clayton, who had ran back to the Heartless so it could protect him.

Everyone watched in shock as the huge Heartless wobbled on its feet and before Clayton could do so much as yell, it fell on him; everyone knew that without a doubt, that Clayton was dead. The Heartless body suddenly started to disappear as well as Clayton's body oddly, and in the large Heartless' place was Clayton's large gun.

A groan caught everyone's attention and they all turned, seeing that Tarzan was starting to awaken. From the shrubbery, a group of gorillas including Kerchak came; the other gorillas went to Tarzan's aid, Kerchak walked up to the group of humans. He stopped a few yards away and just stared at everyone for a moment; quietly everyone started back at him; with a grunt, Kerchak turned around and signaled for everyone to follow him. Looking at each other, but feeling that they could trust the animal, they started to follow; from behind them, Tarzan and the other gorillas followed.

------------------

Eventually everyone came to a very large beautiful opening. It was just before a spacious meadow that was almost like a tropical paradise; Sora and his friends looked around mesmerized, but quickly turned their attention to Kerchak who had come to a sudden stop. He turned around and looked at Sora, signaling him to come closer; Sora did so cautiously. When Sora and Kerchak were standing directly before each other, neither did or said anything, they just stared at each other.

Then suddenly, Kerchak lifted Sora and threw the poor unsuspecting boy into the air!!! Sora yelled as he was thrown up and away into the air, not knowing why he was thrown in the first place.

Meanwhile, Wakka and the others were freaking out.

"What in the world?!" Leon yelled as he watched as Sora flew into the air and out of sight as he landed somewhere far up there.

"Why did you do that?!" Yuffie yelled at Kerchak.

Wakka seemed to be speechless; he just looked up into the air and watched for his cousin.

"Don't worry." Tarzan said.

The trio turned to Tarzan; they knew they could trust him, but still…

------------------

Sora landed with a pained grunt onto a grassy cliff. He groaned as he stood and looked around. It almost looked like it was near nightfall in the area he was standing because of the thick leaves blocking the sunlight. He had no idea why Kerchak had thrown him up there, but he had a strong hunch when suddenly out of the blue his Keyblade just came to his hand; he knew he was in no danger, but there had to be a reason it had happened.

Sora saw that he was near and cave and when he looked into the cave, a soft blue light illuminated from inside. Seeing that there was no other way around but to go in, he took a deep breath and went.

Within only a few feet of walking Sora had come to find out what the source of the blue light was; on the walls of the vine-covered cave walls were small glowing butterflies. Sora found them to be beautiful and soothing, he stopped to look at them for a moment; but as he looked at them, he noticed that they were leading him somewhere; some of the butterflies flew off of the walls and flew around Sora, then they started leading him; Sora followed them.

Deeper into the cave he went, a few moments later, he came to what seemed like a dead end. He came to a large dark wall that was covered in layers of vines; he was thinking of turning back, but he watched as the butterflies landed onto the vines on the wall. He leaned forward and started to remove some of the vines, as he dug he saw something in the wall; removing more of vines and being guided by the lights of the butterflies, he found a large keyhole.

He looked down at the Keyblade and back at the keyhole in the wall; out of instinct, he stepped back and pointed the Keyblade at the hole. He watched in amazement as the tip of his key started to glow and a beam of light ignited and went into the keyhole, much like what had happened back in Wonderland with the doorknob. Like he expected, a deep loud lock sounded and everything went dark; except for the light from the butterflies.

Looking around him, he noticed that the light was bluer than it was before, turning around he saw that all of the butterflies were right behind him blocking his way out. He stayed calm as all of the butterflies suddenly surrounded him and swirled around him; he saw nothing but blue, then it suddenly faded to black.

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Blue came into his vision again and again faded away, but instead of fading to black, Sora found himself back with the others on the ground. Looking around, he was shocked to find that it was nighttime; looking up into the air, he saw that the butterflies were flying up back to the cave.

"Sora!" Yuffie yelled happily, she rushed over to him and grabbed him into a hug. "I was so worried!"

The others came up to him to greet him; Tarzan and the gorillas were still there too.

"What did you find up there?" Wakka asked.

"I found a keyhole." Sora said. "Kerchak threw me up there to find it and those butterflies led me to it."

"And a new blade!" Wakka said. "Look at your Keyblade!"

Sora looked down at his blade and gasped at what he had in his hand; completely different from the one he had when he was up there. He looked down at the Keychain and saw that it was different; that time the Keychain was in the shape of a blue and orange butterfly. The Keyblade itself looked like something clear out of the prehistoric times, it was made from leather and bones, all worn out and old; but it looked amazingly powerful.

"Jungle King…" Tarzan suddenly said as he pointed to the blade.

"Is that what it's called?" Sora asked Tarzan.

Tarzan nodded.

"Maybe there're more Keyholes out there." Yuffie said as she eyed Sora's new blade.

"If there are…" Sora said. "Then we know where the key for them is." He held up his blade.

------------------

As they walked back to the campsite, Kerchak and the other apes had left to go home, leaving Tarzan to lead Sora and the others back.

When they arrived, they were shocked at what they had found near the tent.

"Oh my god!!!" Yuffie said. "It's the ship!"

Leon stood there for a moment just shocked.

The flap of the tent opened and Jane walked out calling for everyone to come in.

"As you can see the ship was found." Jane said. "I and father had a bit of a challenge getting it here. Everything is fixed up as well and the gas tank is near full."

Yuffie walked over to Jane and gave her a hug.

"Thank you so much, you don't know what this means to us." Yuffie said.

"No worries, it was nothing really." Jane said.

Leon walked over to Jane.

"Thank you." Leon said.

Jane nodded and smiled.

Everyone spoke for awhile longer; the group wanted to thank Jane's father, but she said that he was asleep and needed to rest. It was time for the group to leave, having already spend too long in a world they weren't even supposed to visit in the first place. With a message of thanks to Jane to give to her father from them and a few goodbyes; the group finally boarded the ship.

Leon checked all of the systems and he carefully blasted off out of the world so he would set fire to the tent the ship was parked near. The group taking memories of a journey to the world they would never forget.

To be continued…

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Hmmm, the Keychain on Wakka's Keyblade, what does that mean?

Will Sora ever find out about it?

Please send reviews!!!


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